Professor David Kennedy

ARTICLES & CHAPTERS:

• “The Object of Critique: What Is International Law?” Leading Works in International Law, edited by Donna Lyons, Routledge, 2024, pp. 85–114.
• “The Sources of International Law.” American University Journal of International Law & Policy 2, no. 1 (1987): 1-96. (Translated to Burmese by Human Rights Education and Research, 2022).
• “The Context for Context: International Legal History in Struggle.”In History, Politics, Law: Thinking through the International, edited by Annabel Brett, Megan Donaldson, and Martti Koskenniemi, 69-95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
• “Law in Global Political Economy: Now You See It, Now You Don’t.” In The Law of Political Economy: Transformation in Function of Law, edited by Poul Fritz Kjaer, 127-151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
• “Law, Expertise and Global Political Economy, The Montesquieu Lecture” Tilburg Law Review (2018).
• “Author’s Response” in H-Diplo Roundtable XIX, 26, 26 March 2018 on A World of Struggle: How Power Law and Expertise Shape Global Political Economy, Editors Thomas Maddux and Diane Labrosse
• “It’s not about facts.  It’s about politics” First 100 Days Blog, Program on Science, Technology and Society, Harvard Kennedy School, May 11, 2017.
• “A New Stream of International Legal Scholarship,” in General Theory of International Law (American Classics in International Law v. 1, Siegfried Wiessner ed., 2017).
• “A Critical Approach to International Law” in Domaines de la critique, pp 131-138 (2016) available as “Le droit entre theorie et critique,” Jurisprudence – Revue Critique (2016)
• “Introducing A World of Struggle,” London Review of International Law (2016)
• “Law and Development Economics: Towards a New Alliance,” in Law and Economics with Chinese Characteristics: Institutions for Promoting Development in the 21^st Century, co-edited with Joseph Stiglitz, Oxford University Press, (2013).
•  “Law and the Political Economy of the World,” 25:4 Leiden Journal of International Law (2012). Republished in Critical Legal Perspectives on Global Governance (Trubek, et al. editors) (Hart Publishing, 2014).
• “The International Human Rights Regime: Still Part of the Problem?” in The End of an Era? Examining Critical Perspectives on Human Rights, edited by Ole Windahl Pedersen, Cambridge University Press (2012).
• “Lawfare and Warfare” in Cambridge Companion to International Law, edited by James Crawford and Martti Koskenniemi, Cambridge University Press, (2012)
• “Busting Bribery: Sustaining the Global Momentum of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” co-authored with Dan Danielsen, Open Society Foundation, 2011.
• “A Revolution of Reforms? A Possible Agenda for Transition in Egypt” IGLP Working Paper 2011/2
• “Some Caution About Property Rights as a Recipe for Economic Development” 1 Accounting, Economics and Law 1 pp 1-62 (2011).
• “The Mystery of Global Governance” 34 Ohio Northern University Law Review, pp 827-860 (2008). Published in Spanish as “El misterio de la gobernanza global,” in 24 Revista de Derecho publico, translated by María Angélica Prada Uribe, 2010. A version of this essay focusing on constitutionalism was also published as a chapter in Ruling the World: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance, Joel Trachtman, Jeff Dunoff, eds. (2009).
• “Retrato del jurista global o la ética del nuevo cosmopolitismo (Portrait of the Global Jurist or the Ethics of the New Cosmopolitism)” Interview with Francisco J. Contreras and Ignacio de la Rasilla. 4 Revista Internacional de Pensamiento Político, 2009.
• “Assessing the Proposal for a Global Parliament: A Skeptics View” 13 Widener Law Review 2, pp 395-399 (2007).
• “One, Two, Three Many Legal Orders: Legal Pluralism and the Cosmopolitan Dream” 31 NYU Review of Law and Social Change 3, pp 641-659 (2007). This article will also be published in Universalism in International Law and Political Philosophy, Juha Sihvola, Petter Korkman, Virpi Mäkinen, eds. (Forthcoming, 2010).
• “Modern War and Modern Law” 36 Baltimore Law Review 1, pp 173-194 (Winter, 2007). This article was also published in 12 International Legal Theory, pp. 55-97 (Fall 2006) and 16 Minnesota Journal of International Law 2, pp 471-494 (2007).
• “Louis B. Sohn: Recollections of a Co-conspirator” 48 Harvard International Law Journal 1, pp. 25-29 (Winter, 2007).
• “War and International Law: Distinguishing the Military and Humanitarian Professions,” International Law Studies, Volume 82 (Navy Blue Book) Naval War College, pp. 3-33 (2007).
• “Leader, Clerk, or Policy Entrepreneur? The Secretary-General in a Complex World” in Secretary or General? The Role of the United Nations Secretary-General in World Politics, Simon Chesterman, Editor, Cambridge University Press, pp. 158-181 (2007).
• “How Should Sovereignty be Defended?” (with James Der Derian, Michael W. Doyle & Jack L. Snyder) in Politics Without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporary International Relations Alex Gourevitch, Editor, UCL Press, pp. 187-204 (2007).
• “The Last Treatise: Project and Person. (Reflections on Martti Koskenniemi’s From Apology to Utopia)” 7 German Law Journal No. 12 (December 2006).
• Paper Summary from the conference, “Humanities and Human Rights: Critiques, Language, Politics” 121 PMLA 5, pp. 1656-1657 (October, 2006).
• “Sovereignty: Responding to Anghie and Aravamudan” Remarks in the Proceedings of the Symposium “Representing Culture: Translating Human Rights” 41 Texas International Law Journal 3, pp. 465-468 (Summer, 2006).
• “The ‘Rule of Law,’ Political Choices and Development Common Sense”, in The New Law and Economic Development, David M. Trubek, and Alvaro Santos, eds., Cambridge University Press, pp. 95-173 (2006).
• “Reassessing International Humanitarianism: The Dark Sides“, in International Law and its Others, Anne Orford, Editor, Cambridge University Press, pp. 131-155 (2006).
• “Reassessing the Humanitarian Promise of the International Legal Tradition” 126 Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches Recht I, pp. 133-156 (2006).
• “Recasting UN’sRole.” Boston Globe, 8 June 2006.
• “Speaking Law to Power: International Law and Foreign Policy Closing Remarks,” University of Wisconsin Law School, March 6, 2004, 23 Wisconsin International Law Journal 1, pp. 173-181 (Winter 2005).
•  “Proceedings from the Conference “Working Borders: Linking Debates About Insourcing and Outsourcing of Capital and Labor,” University of Texas Law School, February 10-11, 2005, 40 Texas International Law Journal 4, pp. 692-805 (Summer 2005).
•  “La Corte Penal Internacional Fue Una Mala Idea,” 51 THEMIS Law Review. Interview with Iván Blume Moore, 2005.
• “Challenging Expert Rule: The Politics of Global Governance,” 27 Sydney Journal of International Law, pp. 5-28 (2005).  Reprinted in Corporate and Employment Perspectives in a Global Business Environment, Roger Blanpain, ed (Kluwer Law Int’l, 2006).
• “International Humanitarianism: The Dark Sides,” 6 The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law 3, (June, 2004).  Reprinted in Human Rights and Development: Law, Policy and Governance, C. Raj Kumar and DK Srivastava, eds., LexisNexis Hong Kong (2006). Published in Spanish as “Humanitarismo Internacional: Los Lados Oscuros,” in 13 Advocatus, pp. 39-54, 2005.
• “Proceedings of the International Symposium on the International Legal Order,” 16 Leiden Journal of International Law 4,  pp. 839-843 (December 2003).
• “Roundtable Discussion: Is Subversion Subversive?” 13 Texas Journal of Women and the Law 1, pp. 149-168 (Fall 2003).
• “Tom Franck and the Manhattan School,” 35 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 2, pp. 397-435 (Winter 2003).
• “Laws and Developments,” in Law and Development: Facing Complexity in the 21st Century, edited by Amanda Perry-Kessaris and John Hatchard, Cavendish Publishing, pp. 17-26 (2003). Published in Spanish as “Derecho y Desarollo”, by Dr. Encarnacion Postigo Pinzano (Forthcoming).
• “The Methods and Politics of Comparative Law,” in The Common Core of European Private Law: Essays on the Project, edited by Mauro Bussani and Ugo Mattei, Kluwer Law International, 131-207 (2003). Originally published in Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions, edited by Pierre Legrand and Roderick Munday, 345-433 (Cambridge University Press 2003).
• “The Twentieth Century Discipline of International Law in the United States,” in Looking Back at Law’s Century,, edited by Austin Sarat et al., Cornell University Press, pp. 386-433, (2002).
• “The Politics of the Invisible College: International Governance and the Politics of Expertise,” 5 European Human Rights Law Review pp. 463-497(2001).
• “The Spectacle and the Libertine” in Aftermath: The Clinton Impeachment and the Presidency in the Age of Political Spectacle, edited by L.V. Kaplan and B.I. Moran, New York University Press, pp. 279-296(2001). Originally presented at a conference held at the University of Wisconsin Law School on February 5, 2000 entitled “Aftermath: Conversations on the Clinton Scandal, the Future of the Presidency and the Liberal State”.
• “The International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?” 3 European Human Rights Law Review 2001. Reprinted in 14 Harvard Human Rights Journal, pp. 101-126 (2002). Published in Spanish as “El Movimiento Internacional de los Derechos Humanos: ¿Forma Parte del Problema?” by Mariela Pérez-Costa in 48 THEMIS Law Review 2004. Also translated into Spanish by Laura Parilla Gomez.
• “The Forgotten Politics of International Governance” 2 European Human Rights Law Review pp. 117-125 (2001).  Previously published as “Background Noise? – the Politics Beneath Global Governance”, 21 Harvard Int’l Review 3, 52 (Summer 1999). Published in Italian as “Tecnocrazia e Contesto: Ovvero i fraintendimenti della globalizzazione e la (ri) scoperta del background,” Anno XIX Rivista Critica del Diritto Privato 663 (2001).
• Book Review, 22 Cardozo Law Review, 991 (March 2001). [Review of A Critique of Adjudication: Fin de Siècle, 1997 by Duncan Kennedy].
• “The Politics and Methods of Comparative Law,” presented at Downing College, Cambridge, July 26-30, 2000.
• “My Talk at the ASIL: What is New Thinking in International Law?,” Proceedings of the 94^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, pp. 104-125, (April 5-8, 2000).
• “When Renewal Repeats: Thinking Against the Box,” 32 New York Journal of International Law   and Politics 2, pp. 335-500 (Winter 2000). Reprinted in Left Legalism/Left Critique forthcoming from Duke University Press, (2002) Published in Spanish as “Cuando la Renovación solo es Repeticion: Ideas Contra el Paradigma,” in Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales 2002 <www.reei.org> and as “Rompiendo moldes en el Derecho Internacional: Cuando la renovación es repetición,” translated by Ignacio Forcada, Dykinson, 2002.
• “Introduction,” Hague Yearbook of International Law 1 (2000).
• “Putting the Politics Back in International politics,” The Finnish Yearbook of International Law 17 (2000).
• “The International Anti-Corruption Campaign,”14 U. Conn. J. of Int’l Law, 101 (1999).
• “Critical Legal Theory,” Proceedings of a panel with Mitchel Lasser (Moderator), Duncan Kennedy, David Kennedy, Nathaniel Berman (Discussants), Norman Silber and Lawrence Kessler (Commentators) on law and the arts at the Hofstra University School of Law, October 30, 1996 published as Chapter 10, Law and the Arts, Susan Tiefenbrun, ed. 115 (1999).
• “The Disciplines of International Law and Policy,” five lectures delivered at The University of Paris, February (1998), published in French as “Les clichés revisités, le droit international et la politique,” Droit International 4, 1999/2000; and in English, in 12 Leiden Journal of International Law, 9 (1999).
• “Background Noise? – the Politics Beneath Global Governance”, 21 Harvard Int’l Review 3, 52 (Summer 1999).
• “The Nuclear Weapons Case: International Law at the Close of the Twentieth Century,” in “International Law, the International Court of Justice and Nuclear Weapons,” edited by Philippe Sands, Cambridge University Press 462-472 (1999).
• “Losing Faith in the Secular: Law, Religion and International Governance,” presented at the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, Harvard University, November 15, 1997, published in  4 Graven Images: Transgression, Punishment, Responsibility and Forgiveness, 138 (1998);  re-titled “Global Religion and the Law” in One Nation Under God?, edited by Marjorie Garber and Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Routledge, Inc, 115 (1999); also published as “Images of Religion in International Legal Theory” in Religion and International Law, edited by Mark Janis, by Kluwer Academic Publishers (1999).
• “Three Questions,” 3 New York City Law Review, 9 (1998).
• Book Review, 9 A.J.I.L., 745 (1997). [Review of The Right of Conquest: The Acquisition of Territory by Force in International Law and Practice by Sharon Korman].
• “New Approaches to Comparative Law: Comparativism and International Governance”, 2 Utah Law Review, 545 (1997).
• “International Law in the Nineteenth Century: History of an Illusion” 65 Nordic Journal of International Law, 385-420 (1996).  Reprinted in 17 Quinnipiac L.R. 99-136 (1998).
• “Law’s Literature: Remarks for Panel Discussion: ‘Law and Literature: Where Do We Go From Here?’” Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, October 22, 1994. Published in Fieldwork, edited by Walkowitz and Garber, 207 (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1996).
• “Some Remarks About Trials,” in Secret Agents: The Rosenberg Case, McCarthyism, and Fifties             America, edited by Walkowitz and Garber, 253  (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1995).
• “A New World Order: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” 4:X Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 330 (1994).
• “Receiving the International,” 10 Conn. J. of Intl. L., 1 (1994); reprinted Athens Law Review, 5 (1994); and in “Law, Life and the Images of Man: Modes of Thought in Modern Legal Theory,” edited by Frank Fleerackers, Evert van Leeuwen and Bert van Roermund, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 393 (1997). Published in Spanish as “La internacionalización,” in Mundialización económica y crisis político-jurídica, Anales de la Cátedra Francisco Suárez N.° 32, 49 (1995).
• “The International Style in Postwar Law and Policy,”  1 Utah Law Review, 7 (1994). Excerpt reprinted as  “Il Kelsen delle ‘Oliver Wendell Holmes’ Lectures: un pragmatista del diritto internazionale pubblico.,” IV 2 Diritto e Cultura, translated by Angelo Di Giovanni, 12 – 47 (July – Dec. 1994); Excerpt reprinted as “The International Style in Postwar Law and Policy: John Jackson and the Field of International Economic Law,” 10 The American Journal of International Law and Policy,671 (1995). Excerpt reprinted as “The International Style in Postwar Law and Policy,” Chapter 4 of Law and Moral Action in World Politics, Northwestern University Press, (1997).
• “New Approaches to International Law Bibliography,” with Christopher Tennant, 35 Harvard International Law Journal, 417 (1994). Reprinted in European Research Center, September 1999.
• “Autumn Weekends: An Essay on Law and Everyday Life,” in Law and Everyday Life, edited by Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns, 191 (1993).  Excerpts reprinted as “An Autumn Weekend” in After Identity: A Reader in Law and Culture, edited by Danielsen and Engel, 191-210 (Routledge, Chapman, Hall, 1995). Translated into French as “Weekends d’Automne,” Droit International 4, 1999/2000 (133-178).
• “The Limits of Integration: Eastern Europe and the European Communities,” (with David Webb). 30 Common Market Law Review, 1095 (1993).
• “Some Reflections on the Role of Sovereignty in the New International Order,” in State Sovereignty: The Challenge of a Changing World: Proceedings of the 1992 Conference of Canadian Council on International Law, 237 (1992).
• “Turning to Market Democracy: A Tale of Two Architectures,” 32 Harvard International Law Journal, 373 (1991).
• “Some Comments on Law & Post-Modernism: A Symposium Response to Professor Jennifer Wicke,” 62.3 University of Colorado Law Review, 62 (1991).
• “Images of Religion in International Legal Theory,” in The Influence of Religion on the Development of International Law, edited by Janis, 137 (Kluwer, 1991); Religion and International Law, edited by Mark Janis, by Kluwer Academic Publishers (1999).
• “Theses About International Law Discourse,” 28 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 3, 353-391 (1990).
• “Images of Religion in International Legal Theory.” In The Influence of Religion on the Development of International Law 137- 1991.
• “Integration: Eastern Europe and the European Economic Communities.” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 28, no. 3 (1990): 633-675.
• “Book Reviews.” Harvard International Law Journal 31, no. 1 (Winter 1990): 385-391.
• “Austria and the European Communities.” Common Market Law Review 26, no. 4 (1989): 615-641.
• “Austrian Membership in the European Communities.” Harvard International Law Journal 31, no. 2 (Spring 1990): 407-461.
• “A Comment on the European Community 1992 Program.” (presentation, Proceedings of the Fordham Corporate Law Institute, New York, N.Y., October 1989).
• “A Rotation in Contemporary Legal Scholarship.” In Critical Legal Thought: An American-German Debate 339-375, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1989.
• “A New Stream of International Law Scholarship.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 7, no. 1 (1988): 1-49.
• “Religion and International Law.” (presentation, Proceedings of the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Washington, D.C., April 1988).
• “Law and Passion.” (newsletter special feature, Conference on Critical Legal Studies, Buffalo, NY, July 1988).
• “The Sources of International Law.” American University Journal of International Law & Policy 2, no. 1 (1987): 1-96.
• “Book Review.” American Journal of International Law 81, no. 2 (1987): 451-455.
• “The Move to Institutions.” Reprinted in International Organizations 148- London: Ashgate Publishing, 2006
• “The Move to Institutions.” Cardozo Law Review 8, no. 5 (1987): 841-988.
• “Violence in International Law.” (presentation, Proceedings of the 80th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, Washington, D.C., April 1986).
• “Critical Theory, Structuralism and Contemporary Legal Scholarship.” New England Law Review 21, no. 1 (1985-1986): 209-289.
• “Primitive Legal Scholarship.” Harvard International Law Journal 27, no.1 (Winter 1986): 1-98.
• “International Refugee Protection.” Human Rights Quarterly 8, no. 4 (1986): 1-69.
• “Spring Break.” In Knowledges: Historical and Critical Studies in Disciplinarity 422-462. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993
• “Spring Break.” Texas Law Review 63, no. 8 (1985): 1377-1423.
• “The Turn to Interpretation.” Southern California Law Review 58, (1985): 251-275.
• “International Legal Education.” Harvard International Law Journal 26, no. 2 (Spring 1985): 361-384.
• “A Critical Approach to the Nuclear Weapons Problem.” Brooklyn Journal of International Law 9, no. 2 (Summer 1983): 306-310.
• “Book Reviews.” Harvard International Law Journal no. 3 (Fall 1981): 730-734.
• “Report on the Conference of the International Commission of Jurist on the ‘Development and the Rule of the Law’ held at The Hague, 27 April – 1 May, 1981.” Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 14, no. 3 (1981): 353-359.
• “Theses about International Law Discourse.” German Yearbook of International Law 23, (1980): 353-391.
• “Warum blieben die Demonstraten allein?” Die Zeit (Hamburg, GER), Mar. 27, 1981.
• “Book Review.” 22 Harvard International Law Journal 730 (1981) (reviewing Staatsrecht-Volkrrecht-Europarecht: Festschrift fur Hans-Jurgen Schlochauer zum 7, Ingo von Münch ed., 1981).
• “Book Reviews.” Harvard International Law Journal 21, no. 1 (Winter 1980): 301-311.
• “The Forum: On the Cartel Bogie.” Fletcher Forum 1, no. 2 (Spring 1977): 232-237.

Curriculum Vitae

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

• Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, since 2011, 2008-2009, 2003-2007.
• Director, Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School, since 2009.
• Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, 2009-2010, 1986-1994.
• Director, European Law Research Center, 1991-2009.
• Faculty Director, Graduate and International Legal Studies, 1991-1997.
• Chair, Committee of Graduate Studies, 1990-1997.
• Henry J. Shattuck Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, 1994-2003
• Assistant Professor, 1983-1986; Lecturer, 1981-1983.

Courses: International Law, Global Law and Policy, Law and Economic Development, European Union Law, International Economic Law, American Legal Thought, Evidence.

• Member, Supervisory Board, Albanian Investment Corporation, 2021- present.
• Member, Board of Trustees, CMKL Carnegie Mellon University, Bangkok, 2019-present.
• Member, Advisory Board, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo.
• Visiting Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 2007-2013.
• Vice President for International Affairs, University Professor of Law and David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations, Brown University, 2007-2009.
• Visiting Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2006.
• Visiting Professor, New York University Law School, 1999.
• Of counsel, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, Brussels, Belgium, 1989-1990.
• General corporate, European Union and government relations practice.
• Consultant for various projects involving international and European law, including work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the European Communities Commission Legal Service, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Doctors Without Borders, the Thai Foreign Ministry, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

EDUCATION:

• Juris Doctor, Honoris Causa, University of Helsinki, 2010.
• D., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1984.
• D., magna cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1980.
• A.L.D., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1979.
• B., with honors, Brown University, 1976.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP:

• District of Columbia Bar, admitted 1980.
• Council on Foreign Relations, since 2003.
• Member, Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council, since 2012.
• Member and past Chairman, World Economic Forum’s Advisory Council on Global Governance.
• London Review of International Law, Board of Editors.

OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE AND LANGUAGES:

• Visiting Professor: Sciences Po, 2011; University of Paris X, Nanterre, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998, 2001-2002, 2005-2006; University of Turin, 2001 and 2002; Australian National University, 2000; University of Paris II, 1998; University of Toronto 1998 and 1999.
• Visiting Scholar: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2000-2001.
• Fulbright Fellow, Belgium 1984.
• Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung and Sheldon Fellow, Germany1980-1981. jointly at Institute for International Law, Kiel University and Institute for International Affairs, Hamburg University, Germany.
• German (reading and speaking); French (reading and comprehension).

Subject Areas for Supervising Written Work

• International Law
• Legal Theory
• Law and development
• European Union law
• Law and Political Economy
• Global Law and Governance

COURSES

• The Power of Law: Critical Conversations (Fall 2023) This course will be a series of discussions arising from the themes developed in the instructors’ recent publication: David Kennedy and Martti Koskenniemi, Of Law and the World: Critical Conversations on Power, History and Political Economy (Harvard University Press, 2023). Each week we will start by reflecting together on the ideas raised in a chapter of the book before turning to other texts raising related or alternative ideas on similar themes.
• Law in Global Affairs (Fall 2023) This course examines the history of ideas, legal doctrines, institutional and administrative structures intended to organize and legalize international economic and political life. The readings will provide a common background for exploring and comparing efforts both to remake the world and re-imagine law. As we analyze our inheritance from that tradition, we will assess recent efforts to rethink law’s role in light of twenty first century political, economic and cultural challenges.  Although there is no pre-requisite for the course, students with background in international law, history or international relations may have a better experience.
• Knowledge as Power in Law and Science (Fall 2023) How do ideas about law and science shape the contours of the contemporary world? Knowledge underwrites legal authority – but how exactly? How do ideas about what is natural, right or ordained become powerful, hegemonic? Both law and science rely on experts to define the basic coordinates by which we locate ourselves and recognize each other, as members of collectives, actors in institutions, and selves possessing subjectivity. But how does each conceive the other’s role, and affirm or resist it? In this course, we will read and discuss literature from social theory, law, and science and technology studies that bears on these questions, alongside case studies that illuminate expertise in action in a variety of professional, scientific, and legal settings. The thematic focus for our discussions will be sites and modes of ‘authority’ – the ‘authorities’ of law and science and critique.
• Law and Political Economy (Fall 2023) Around the world, questions of “political economy” are back on the agenda, arrangements long taken for granted open to question, often in the name of “inequality.” This two credit course will consider left liberal and more radical intellectual traditions for thinking about political economy and what law has to do with it. Along the way, we will contrast alternative ideas about how the great disparities in wealth, status and authority arise, are reproduced and might be reduced. Is “inequality” the right frame? Or something more like subordination, exploitation or expropriation? Is law primarily a reformer’s tool – or something more fundamental to the reproduction of hierarchies? What would it mean to rethink or remake the foundations for political and economic life, either nationally or globally?
• 1L Reading Group: Global Law and Policy (Fall 2023) This group will analyze contemporary issues of global political economy to understand how legal ideas learned in the first year might be relevant.   A British factory moves to Poland, a factory burns in Bangladesh: how does studying contracts, criminal law, property, torts, civil procedure and legislative process help us understand what’s going on in such stories?   How much of the global legal landscape can we map using the intellectual tools of the first year?   If you came to law school interested in international affairs, this reading group may help keep that flame alive in the core of first year study.
• Knowledge as Power in Law and Science (Spring 2023) How do ideas about law and science shape the contours of the contemporary world? Knowledge underwrites legal authority – but how exactly? How do ideas about what is natural, right or ordained become powerful, hegemonic? Both law and science rely on experts to define the basic coordinates by which we locate ourselves and recognize each other, as members of collectives, actors in institutions, and selves possessing subjectivity. But how does each conceive the other’s role, and affirm or resist it? In this course, we will read and discuss literature from social theory, law, and science and technology studies that bears on these questions, alongside case studies that illuminate expertise in action in a variety of professional, scientific, and legal settings. The thematic focus for our discussions will be sites and modes of ‘authority’ – the ‘authorities’ of law and science and critique.
• Global Law (Fall 2022) This course explores law’s role in global affairs. We will examine the history of ideas, legal doctrines, institutional and administrative structures intended to organize and legalize international economic and political life. The readings will provide a common background for exploring and comparing efforts both to remake the world and re-imagine law. As we analyze our inheritance from that tradition, we will assess recent efforts to rethink law’s role in light of twenty first century political, economic and cultural challenges.
• Law and Economic Development (Fall 2022) This course will deal with past and present debates over the role of the legal order in economic development. We will explore the relationships among economic ideas, legal ideas and the development policies pursued at the national and international level in successive historical periods. We will focus on the potential for an alliance of heterogenous traditions from economics, law and other disciplines to understand development.
• Law and Political Economy? (Fall 2022) Around the world, questions of “political economy” are back on the agenda, arrangements long taken for granted open to question, often in the name of “inequality.” This two credit year long course will consider left liberal and more radical intellectual traditions for thinking about political economy and what law has to do with it. Along the way, we will contrast alternative ideas about how the great disparities in wealth, status and authority arise, are reproduced and might be reduced.  Is “inequality” the right frame? Or something more like subordination, exploitation or expropriation? Is law primarily a reformer’s tool – or something more fundamental to the reproduction of hierarchies? What would it mean to rethink or remake the foundations for political and economic life, either nationally or globally? Emeritus Professor Duncan Kennedy will participate in course discussions.
• Knowledge as Power in Law and Science (Spring 2021) This course explores ways in which power makes and is exercised through knowledge. Governance, rulership, authority: each is undertaken by people doing things with ideas. Some of these people are experts or professionals: economists, lawyers, doctors, scientists, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, military strategists. Examining their practices opens a window on the ways knowledge shapes the contemporary world. In particular, many people rely on experts to define the basic coordinates by which they locate themselves and recognize one other, as members of collectives, actors in institutions, and selves possessing subjectivity. That these fundamental aspects of personal and social existence are difficult to understand today without the mediating role of expertise is one of the fundamental features of modernity. In this course, we seek particularly to explore how the law interacts with professional modes of expertise to produce our senses and sensibilities with regard to time, space, institutions, and identities.We will read and discuss literature from social theory, law, and science and technology studies which bears on these questions, alongside case studies of “expertise” in action in a variety of professional, scientific and lay settings.
• Law and Political Economy? (2020-2021 Academic year)Around the world, questions of “political economy” are back on the agenda, arrangements long taken for granted open to question, often in the name of “inequality.” This two credit year long course will consider left liberal and more radical intellectual traditions for thinking about political economy and what law has to do with it. Along the way, we will contrast alternative ideas about how the great disparities in wealth, status and authority arise, are reproduced and might be reduced. Is “inequality” the right frame? Or something more like subordination, exploitation or expropriation? Is law primarily a reformer’s tool – or something more fundamental to the reproduction of hierarchies? What would it mean to rethink or remake the foundations for political and economic life, either nationally or globally?
• Knowledge as Power in Law and Science (Spring 2020)This course explores ways in which power makes and is exercised through knowledge. Governance, rulership, authority: each is undertaken by people doing things with ideas. Some of these people are experts or professionals: economists, lawyers, doctors, scientists, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, military strategists. Examining their practices opens a window on the ways knowledge shapes the contemporary world. In particular, many people rely on experts to define the basic coordinates by which they locate themselves and recognize one other, as members of collectives, actors in institutions, and selves possessing subjectivity. That these fundamental aspects of personal and social existence are difficult to understand today without the mediating role of expertise is one of the fundamental features of modernity. In this course, we seek particularly to explore how the law interacts with professional modes of expertise to produce our senses and sensibilities with regard to time, space, institutions, and identities.We will read and discuss literature from social theory, law, and science and technology studies which bears on these questions, alongside case studies of “expertise” in action in a variety of professional, scientific and lay settings.
• Approaches to Political Economy: Inequality or Subordination? (Spring 2020)Around the world, questions of political economy are back on the agenda, arrangements long taken for granted open to question, often in the name of inequality. Is inequality the issue? Or subordination? And what does law have to do with it? Is law just a reformers tool – or something more fundamental to the reproduction of hierarchies of wealth, authority, honor and shame? What would it mean to rethink or remake the foundations for political and economic life, either nationally or globally? This one credit course will consider contemporary liberal and radical analyses of political economy to explore the range of views about what is wrong, what to do about it – and how law matters.
• Global Law and Governance (Fall 2020)This course explores law’s role in global affairs. We will examine the history of ideas, legal doctrines, institutional and administrative structures intended to organize and legalize international economic and political life. The readings will provide a common background for exploring and comparing efforts both to remake the world and re-imagine law. As we analyze our inheritance from that tradition, we will assess recent efforts to rethink law’s role in light of twenty-first-century political, economic, and cultural challenges.
• Law and Economic Development (Fall 2020)This course will deal with past and present debates over the role of the legal order in economic development. We will explore the relationships among economic ideas, legal ideas and the development policies pursued at the national and international level in successive historical periods. We will focus on the potential for an alliance of heterogenous traditions from economics, law and other disciplines to understand development
• 1L Reading Group: Global Law and Policy (Fall 2020)This group will analyze contemporary issues of global political economy to understand how legal ideas learned in the first year might be relevant. A British factory moves to Poland, a factory burns in Bangladesh: how does studying contracts, criminal law, property, torts, civil procedure and legislative process help us understand what’s going on in such stories? How much of the global legal landscape can we map using the intellectual tools of the first year? If you came to law school interested in international affairs, this reading group may help keep that flame alive in the core of first-year study.