Born: 1939
Nationality: American
Education and professional activities:
Professor Dr. Richard Allen Posner is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. He is the leading figure in the field of law and economics and has been recognized by the Journal of Legal Studies as the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century.
Professor Posner graduated from Yale College and from Harvard Law School, where he was valedictorian of his class and president of the Harvard Law Review. Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Professor Posner clerked for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and he was assistant to Commissioner Philip Elman of the Federal Trade Commission. He was also an assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. Prior to going to Stanford Law School in 1968 as an associate professor, Posner served as General Counsel of the President’s Task Force on Communications Policy. In 1968, Professor Posner accepted a teaching position at Stanford Law School. In 1969, he moved to the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, where he remains as a senior lecturer.
In 1981, Professor Posner was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a sit on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a position that was confirmed by the United States Senate in the same year. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 1993 to 2000, during which time he continued working as a part-time professor at the University of Chicago.
List of publications:
Economic Analysis of Law, Aspen 1973.
Antitrust Law: An Economic Perspective, University of Chicago Press 1976.
The Economics of Justice, Harvard University Press 1981.
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.
Sex and Reason, Harvard University Press 1992.
Overcoming Law, Harvard University Press 1995.
Aging and Old Age, The University of Chicago Press 1995.
The Federal Courts: Challenge and Reform, Harvard University Press 1996
Law and Legal Theory in England and America, Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press 1996.
The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory, Economic Analysis of Law, 5th ed., Aspen 1998.
Frontiers of Legal Theory, Harvard University Press 2001.
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.
Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy, Harvard University Press 2003.
The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (co-authored by W. M. Landes), Harvard University Press 2003.
Catastrophe: Risk and Response, Oxford University Press 2004.
Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11, Hoover Institution, Roman & Littlefield 2005.
Uncertain Shield: The U.S. Intelligence System in the Throes of Reform, Rowman and Littlefield 2006.
Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency, Oxford University Press 2006.
The Little Book of Plagiarism, Pantheon Books 2007.
Countering Terrorism: Blurred Focus, Halting Steps, Rowman & Littlefield 2007.