11
CURRICULUM VITAE OF JUDGE
RICHARD A. POSNER
DEGREES
Yale UniversityA.B., 1959, summa cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa
(elected junior year); Scholar of the House;
Saybrook Fellows’ Prize.
Harvard UniversityLL.B., 1962, magna cum laude; Fay Diploma;
Sears and Beale Prizes; President, Harvard Law
Review.
Syracuse UniversityLL.D. (Hon.), 1986.
Duquesne UniversityLL.D. (Hon.), 1987.
Georgetown UniversityLL.D. (Hon.), 1993.
University of GhentD. Hon. Causa, 1995.
Yale UniversityLL.D. (Hon.), 1996.
University of PennsylvaniaLL.D. (Hon.), 1997
Brooklyn Law SchoolJ.D. (Hon.), 2000
Northwestern UniversityLL.D. (Hon.), 2001
Aristotle University
of ThessalonikiLL.D. (Hon.), 2002
University of Athens D. Hon. Causa, 2002
EMPLOYMENT
1962-1963:Law Clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Supreme Court of the United States.
1963-1965:Assistant to Commissioner Philip Elman, Federal Trade Commission.
1965-1967:Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States (Thurgood Marshall).
1967-1968:General Counsel, President's Task Force on Communications Policy.
1968-1969:Associate Professor of Law, Stanford University.
1969-1978:Professor of Law, University of Chicago.
1978-1981:Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law, University of Chicago.
1971-1981:Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research.
1977-1981:President, Lexecon Inc.
1981-Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
1993-2000Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
1981-Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School.
(SELECTED) OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
1969Member, American Bar Association's Commission to Study the FTC.
1969Member, President's Task Force on Competition and Productivity.
1972-1981Editor, Journal of Legal Studies.
1988-1990Member, Federal Courts Study Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
1990-1993Member, University of Chicago Board of Publications.
1995-1996President, American Law and Economics Association.
1993-2000Member, Judicial Conference of the United States.
1998-Editor, American Law and Economics Review.
ELECTED MEMBERSHIPS
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow).
American Law Institute (Life Member).
British Academy (Corresponding Fellow).
Century Association.
Mont Pèlerin Society.
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
American Economic Association.
American Law and Economics Association.
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Richard A. Posner was born on January 11, 1939, in New York City, and grew up in New York and its suburbs. He graduated from Yale College in 1959, summa cum laude, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year; he was an English major and a Scholar of the House. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School in 1962, magna cum laude, and was President of the Harvard Law Review. He worked for several years in Washington during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations—as law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., as an assistant to Commissioner Philip Elman of the Federal Trade Commission, as an assistant to the Solicitor General of the U.S., Thurgood Marshall, and as general counsel of President Johnson’s Task Force on Communications Policy.
Posner entered law teaching in 1968 at Stanford as an associate professor, and became professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School in 1969, where he remained (later as Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law) until his appointment to the Seventh Circuit in 1981. During this period Posner wrote a number of books (including Antitrust Law: An Economic Perspective, Economic Analysis of Law—now in its sixth edition—and The Economics of Justice) and many articles (a number of these in collaboration with the economist William Landes), mainly exploring the application of economics to a variety of legal subjects, including antitrust, public utility and common carrier regulation, torts, contracts, and procedure. He founded the Journal of Legal Studies, primarily to encourage economic analysis of law, and was a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also engaged in private consulting and was from 1977 to 1981 the first president of Lexecon Inc., a firm made up of lawyers and economists that provides economic and legal research and support in antitrust, securities, and other litigation.
Posner became a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in December 1981 and served as Chief Judge from 1993 to 2000. He has written almost 2200 published judicial opinions. He continues to teach part time at the University of Chicago Law School, where he is Senior Lecturer, and to write academic articles and books. He has written 38 books and more than 300 articles and book reviews. His academic work since his becoming a judge has included studies in the economics of criminal law, labor law, and intellectual property; in jurisprudence, law and literature, and the interpretation of constitutional and statutory texts; and in the economics of sexuality and of old age. His recent books include Private Choices and Public Health: The AIDS Epidemic in an Economic Perspective (1993) (coauthored with Tomas Philipson), Overcoming Law (1995), Aging and Old Age (1995), a second edition of The Federal Courts (1996), Law and Legal Theory in England and America (1996), a revised and enlarged edition of Law and Literature (1998), The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory (1999), An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999), The Frontiers of Legal Theory (2001), Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts (2001), a second edition of Antitrust Law (2001), Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline (2001), a sixth edition of Economic Analysis of Law (2003) (awarded the Ames Prize by Harvard Law School in 2003), Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy (2003); The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (2003) (coauthored with William M. Landes); and Catastrophe: Risk and Response (2004). His latest book is Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11, published in the spring of 2005. His current academic research concerns law and science, intelligence reform, intellectual property, social control of technology, public intellectuals, antitrust, constitutional law, democratic theory, and jurisprudence and moral theory. Academic writings by Posner have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Slovenian. He and the economist Gary Becker write weekly commentaries on policy issues, published in “The Becker-Posner Blog,” at
Posner received honorary degrees of doctor of laws from Syracuse University in 1986, from Duquesne University in 1987, from Georgetown University in 1993, from Yale in 1996, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, from Northwestern University in 2002, and from Aristotle University (in Thessaloniki) in 2002; and he received the degree of doctor honoris causa from the University of Ghent in 1995 from the University of Athens in 2002, and an honorary juris doctor degree from Brooklyn Law School in 2000. In 1994 he received the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award in Law from the University of Virginia. In 1998 he was awarded the Marshall-Wythe Medallion by the College of William and Mary, and he received the 2003 Research Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. He received the John Sherman Award from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, for contributions to antitrust policy. In 2005 he received both the Learned Hand Medal for Exellence in Federal Jurisprudence from the Federal bar Council and the Thomas C. Schelling Award for scholarly contributions that have had an impact on public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Posner is a member of the American Law Institute, the Mont Pèlerin Society, and the Century Association, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple, a corresponding fellow of the British Academy, an honorary fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Law and Economics, and a Consultant to the Library of America, as well as a member of the American Economic Association and the American Law and Economics Association (of which he was President in 1995–1996). He was the honorary President of the Bentham Club of University College, London, for 1998. With Orley Ashenfelter, he edits the American Law and Economics Review, the journal of the American Law and Economics Association.
Posner is married to the former Charlene Horn and they have two sons, Kenneth and Eric, and four grandchildren.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ACADEMIC WRITINGS
BOOKS
Economic Analysis of Law (Little, Brown, 1973).
Antitrust: Cases, Economic Notes, and Other Materials (West, 1974).
Antitrust Law: An Economic Perspective (University of Chicago Press, 1976).
The Workload of the Supreme Court (American Bar Foundation, 1976), coauthored with Gerhard Casper.
Economic Analysis of Law (2d ed.) (Little, Brown, 1977).
The Economics of Contract Law (Little, Brown, 1978), coauthored with Anthony T. Kronman.
Antitrust: Cases, Economic Notes, and Other Materials (2d ed.) (West, 1980), coauthored with Frank H. Easterbrook; with 1984-85 Supplement.
Economics of Corporation Law and Securities Regulation (Little, Brown, 1981), coauthored with Kenneth E. Scott.
The Economics of Justice (Harvard University Press, 1981).
Tort Law: Cases and Economic Analysis (Little, Brown, 1982).
The Federal Courts: Crisis and Reform (Harvard University Press, 1985).
Economic Analysis of Law (3d ed.) (Little, Brown, 1986).
The Economic Structure of Tort Law (Harvard University Press, 1987), coauthored with William M. Landes.
Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation (Harvard University Press, 1988).
The Problems of Jurisprudence (Harvard University Press, 1990).
Cardozo: A Study in Reputation (University of Chicago Press, 1990).
The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (University of Chicago Press, 1992).
Sex and Reason (Harvard University Press, 1992).
Economic Analysis of Law (4th ed., Little, Brown, 1992).
Private Choices and Public Health: The AIDS Epidemicin an EconomicPerspective (Harvard University Press, 1993), coauthored with Tomas J. Philipson.
Overcoming Law (Harvard University Press, 1995).
Aging and Old Age (University of Chicago Press, 1995).
A Guide to America’s Sex Laws (University of Chicago Press, 1996), coauthored with Katharine Silbaugh.
The Federal Courts: Challenge and Reform (Harvard University Press, 1996) (second edition of The Federal Courts: Crisis and Reform).
Law and Legal Theory in England and America (Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1996).
Law and Literature (enlarged and revised edition, Harvard University Press, 1998).
Law and Economics (3 vols.) (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1997), coedited with Francesco Parisi.
Economic Analysis of Law (5th ed., Aspen Law & Business, 1998) (awarded 2003 Ames Prize by Harvard Law School).
The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory (Harvard University Press, 1999).
An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (Harvard University Press, 1999).
Frontiers of Legal Theory (Harvard University Press, 2001).
The Collected Economic Essays of Richard A. Posner, vol. 1: The Economic Structure of the Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2001) (edited by Francesco Parisi).
The Collected Economic Essays of Richard A. Posner, vol. 2: The Economics of Private Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2001) (edited by Francesco Parisi).
The Collected Economic Essays of Richard A. Posner, vol. 3: The Economics of Public Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2001) (edited by Francesco Parisi).
Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts (Princeton University Press, 2001).
Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline (Harvard University Press, 2001).
Antitrust Law (2d ed., University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Economic Foundations of Private Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2002) (coedited with Franceso Parisi).
Economic Analysis of Law (6th ed., Aspen Law & Business, 2003).
Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2003).
The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (Harvard University Press, 2003) (coauthored with William M. Landes).
Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline (Harvard University press, paperback edition, 2003, with new Preface and Epilogue).
Catastrophe: Risk and Response (Oxford University Press, 2004).
Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11 (Hoover Institution and Roman & Littlefield 2005).
ARTICLES AND ARTICLE-LENGTH MONOGRAPHS
“Natural Monopoly and Its Regulation,” 21 Stanford Law Review 518 (1969).
“Oligopoly and the Antitrust Laws: A Suggested Approach,” 21 Stanford Law Review 1562 (1969).
“Advertising and Product Differentiation,” 2 Antitrust Law & Economics Review 47 (1969).
“The Federal Trade Commission,” 37 University of Chicago Law Review 47(1969).
“The Provision of Data-Processing Services by Communications Common Carriers,” in R. Dunn, Policy Issues Presented by the Interdependence of Computer and Communications Services (Stanford Research Institute Rep. No. 7379B-1, February 1969).
“Conglomerate Mergers and Antitrust Policy: An Introduction,” 44 St. John’s Law Review (special edition) 259 (1970).
Cable Television: The Problem of Local Monopoly (RAND Memorandum RM-6309-FF, May 1970).
“Antitrust Policy and the Consumer Movement,” 15 Antitrust Bulletin 361 (1970).
“A Statistical Study of Antitrust Enforcement,” 13 Journal of Law & Economics 365 (1970).
“Natural Monopoly and Its Regulation: A Reply,” 22 Stanford Law Review 540 (1970).
“A Program for the Antitrust Division,” 38 University of Chicago Law Review 500 (1971).
“Taxation by Regulation,” 2 Bell Journal of Economics & Management Science 22 (1971).
“Regulatory Aspects of National Health Insurance Plans,” 39 University of Chicago Law Review 1 (1971).
“Killing or Wounding to Protect a Property Interest,” 14 Journal of Law & Economics 201 (1971).
“A Theory of Negligence, 1 Journal of Legal Studies 29 (1972).
“The Behavior of Administrative Agencies,” 1 Journal of Legal Studies 305 (1972); also in Gary S. Becker & William M. Landes, eds., Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment 215 (1974).
Market Transfers of Water Rights: Toward an Improved Market in Water Resources National Water Commission, Legal Study No. 4, Final Report, July 1, 1972, published by National Technical Information Service), coauthored with Charles J. Meyers.
“The Appropriate Scope of Regulation in the Cable Television Industry,” 3 Bell Journal of Economics & Management Science 98 (1972).
“Strict Liability: A Comment,” 2 Journal of Legal Studies 205 (1973).
“Reflections on Consumerism,” University of Chicago Law School Record, Spring 1973, p. 19.
“An Economic Approach to Legal Procedure and Judicial Administration,” 2 Journal of Legal Studies 399 (1973).
“Economic Justice and the Economist,” Public Interest, Fall 1973, p. 109.
Regulation of Advertising by the FTC (American Enterprise Institute, 1973).
“The Probable Effects of Pay Cable Television on Culture and the Arts,” in Richard Adler & Walter S. Baer, eds., The Electronic Box Office: Humanities and Arts on the Cable 79 (1974).
“Truth in Advertising: The Role of Government,” in Yale Brozen ed., Advertising and Society 111 (1974).
“An Economic Analysis of Legal Rulemaking,” 3 Journal of Legal Studies 257 (1974), coauthored with Isaac Ehrlich.
“Certificates of Need for Health Care Facilities: A Dissenting View,” in Clark C. Havighurst ed., Regulating Health Facilities Construction 113 (1974).
“Theories of Economic Regulation,” 5 Bell Journal of Economics & Management Science 155 (1974).
“Problems of a Policy of Deconcentration, in Harvey J. Goldschmid, et al. eds., Industrial Concentration: The New Learning 393 (1974).
“Exclusionary Practices and the Antitrust Laws,” 41 University of Chicago Law Review 506 (1974).
“A Study of the Supreme Court’s Caseload,” 3 Journal of Legal Studies 399 (1974), coauthored with Gerhard Casper.
“Power in America: The Role of the Large Corporation,” in J. Fred Weston ed., Large Corporations in a Changing Society 91 (1975).
“The Private Enforcement of Law,” 4 Journal of Legal Studies 1 (1975), coauthored with William M. Landes.
“The DeFunis Case and the Constitutionality of Preferential Treatment of Racial Minorities,” 1974 Supreme Court Review 1 (Philip B. Kurland ed.).
“Antitrust Policy and the Supreme Court: An Analysis of the Restricted Distribution, Horizontal Merger and Potential Competition Decisions,” 75 Columbia Law Review 282 (1975).
“The Economic Approach to Law,” 53 Texas Law Review 758 (1975).
“The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation,” 83 Journal of Political Economy 807 (1975).
“A Comment on No-Fault Insurance for All Accidents,” 13 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 471 (1975).
“The Supreme Court and Antitrust Policy: A New Direction?,” 44 Antitrust Law Journal 141 (1975).
“The Independent Judiciary in an Interest-Group Perspective,” 18 Journal of Law & Economics 875 (1976), coauthored with William M. Landes.
“Market Funds and Trust-Investment Law,” 1976 American Bar Foundation Research Journal 1, coauthored with John H. Langbein.
“The Prudent Investor’s Powers and Obligations in an Age of Market (Index) Funds,” in Evolving Concepts of Prudence 19 (Financial Analysts Research Foundation 1976); also in 5 Journal of Contemporary Business 85 (Summer 1976).
“Oligopolistic Pricing Suits, the Sherman Act, and Economic Welfare (Symposium): A Reply to Professor Markovits,” 28 Stanford Law Review 903 (1976).
“The Rights of Creditors of Affiliated Corporations,” 43 University of Chicago Law Review 493 (1976).
“Blackstone and Bentham,” 19 Journal of Law & Economics 569 (1976).
“The Revolution in Trust Investment Law,” 62 American Bar Association Journal 887 (1976), coauthored with John H. Langbein.
The Robinson-Patman Act: Federal Regulation of Price Differences (American Enterprise Institute, 1976).
“Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis,” 19 Journal of Law & Economics 249 (1976), coauthored with William M. Landes.
Market Funds and Trust-Investment Law: II,” 1977 American Bar Foundation Research Journal, coauthored with John H. Langbein.
“Market Funds and Efficient Markets: A Reply,” 62 American Bar Association Journal 1616 (1976), coauthored with John H. Langbein.
“Impossibility and Related Doctrines in Contract Law: An Economic Analysis,” 6 Journal of Legal Studies 83 (1977), coauthored with Andrew M. Rosenfield.
“Gratuitous Promises in Economics and Law,” 6 Journal of Legal Studies 411 (1977).
“Salvors, Finders, Good Samaritans, and Other Rescuers: An Economic Study of Law and Altruism,” 7 Journal of Legal Studies 83 (1978), coauthored with William M. Landes.
“The Economics of the Baby Shortage,” 7 Journal of Legal Studies 323 (1978), co-authored with Elisabeth M. Landes.
“The Caseload of the Supreme Court: 1975 and 1976 Terms,” 1977 Supreme Court Review 87 (Philip B. Kurland & Gerhard Casper eds.), coauthored with Gerhard Casper.
“Altruism in Law and Economics,” 68 American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 417 (May 1978), coauthored with William M. Landes.
“The Rule of Reason and the Economic Approach: Reflections on the Sylvania Decision,” 45 University of Chicago Law Review 1 (1977).
“The Right of Privacy,” 12 Georgia Law Review 393 (1978).
“An Economic Theory of Privacy,” Regulation, May/June 1978, at 19.
“An Approach to the Regulation of Bank Holding Companies,” 51 Journal of Business 379 (1978), coauthored with Fischer Black and Merton H. Miller.
“Adjudication as a Private Good,” 8 Journal of Legal Studies 235 (1979), coauthored with William M. Landes.
“The Homeric Version of the Minimal State,” 90 Ethics 27 (1979).
“The Federal Trade Commission’s Mandated-Disclosure Program: A Critical Analysis,” in Harvey J. Goldschmid, ed., Business Disclosure: Government’s Need to Know 331 (1979).