[citation needed] Essentially, his goal was to transform the school into a research center, placing particular emphasis on the interaction of the law and other social sciences.
[1] Oliphant later went on to teach at Johns Hopkins University, and later became the chief counsel of the United States Treasury Department, serving in that capacity from 1934 to 1939.
Hearst had recently become heavily involved in synthetics based on petroleum hydrocarbons, and wanted to quash efforts from competing companies to make similar products from hemp seed oil.
The second reason was that in the midst of the Great Depression with limited employment opportunities this endeavor was a vehicle to discourage immigration particularly from Mexico.
[1] Oliphant is generally regarded as a representative of American legal realism and is famous for his statement that the principle of stare decisis is no longer applicable.
In his 1928 inaugural address as President of the American Association of Law Schools, Oliphant said: "Our case material is a gold mine for scientific work.