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Among legal scholars, Traynor is most admired for his contributions to one of the most arcane legal subjects—"conflicts of laws." Example: Should the law of Arizona, where an auto accident took place, or the law of California, where all the parties lived, determine the right of the accident victims to sue the estate of the allegedly negligent driver who was killed in the accident? California, said Traynor back in 1953 in an opinion still studied by law students all over the country.
Despite his love for law, Traynor thinks that the country has too many laws, especially those that clog the courts with auto cases and those that "try to legislate morals." He has certainly studied the subject. Once a law professor at Berkeley (his alma mater), Traynor has enriched his judicial career with a prodigious flow of law-review articles. Next month he will return to scholarship as a visiting law professor at the University of Virginia. He also chairs an American Bar Association committee that is drafting a new code of ethics for judges in response to the Abe Fortas case. For Traynor, the job is clearly no sinecure. "If I have anything to do with it," he says, "our guidelines will apply to every judge from the Supreme Court on down."