Eugene V. Rostow (1913-2002) graduated from Yale College in 1933 and the Law School in 1937, and returned as a professor in 1938. He was the dean of the Law School from 1955-65.

Dean Rostow is perhaps best remembered for his foreign affairs work. At the beginning of his career, however, Dean Rostow specialized in the business law area, teaching many business law courses at Yale, including a seminar for graduate students in economics as well as law students, on the public regulation of industry. That seminar introduced macroeconomics - which Rostow had studied at Cambridge University before entering law school - into antitrust law, and focused on the use of public policy to regulate businesses so as to smooth out the business cycle. Rostow also published a number of influential books on business law-related topics, including A National Policy for the Oil Industry (1948) and Planning for Freedom (1959). In these books he expounded a vision of market competition channeled through efficiency-increasing public regulation.

Dean Rostow’s greatest contribution to business law scholarship at Yale, was, however, in the doubling of the faculty size during his deanship. There was also considerable curricular innovation during his deanship, including the creation of the first year small groups. Rostow was one of the great deans of the Law School and had a lasting influence on it.