He specialised in criminology and criminal law theory, and was one of the drafters of the American Model Penal Code.
[1] He graduated from City College of New York, Phi Beta Kappa, and then attended a Japanese language school in Colorado.
He served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II on a destroyer in the Pacific, translating Japanese military documents,[1] until he was discharged in 1946.
During his years in academia, he worked with Wechsler on the ALI's Model Penal Code, which was to prove hugely influential in reforming American criminal law.
[9] In his scholarship and his work on legal reform, Kadish applied a sociological lens to criminal law and criminology.