Richard Posner

Richard Allen Posner (born on January 11th 1939 with New York) is currently Juge for the Court of Appeal of the seventh circuit. It is one of largest representing movement of the economic Analyze of the right than it helped to form at the University of Chicago, where he is still professor with the Faculty of Law.

Posner is a prolific author and his literary production, economic and legal key as well the theory of the right, as the literature, the security issues main road, the analysis of manners… These principal books are “Economic Analysis off Law”, The Problems off Jurisprudence , Sex and Reason , Overcoming Law , Law, Pragmatism and Democracy , and The Problematics off Moral and Legal Theory.

Biography

Elements of Biography

Posner is graduate University of Yale (A.B., 1959, summa cum laude), where it specializes in English literature, and of the Faculty of Law of Harvard (LL.B, 1962, magna cum laude), where he was also president of “Harvard Law Review”. After a passage as an assistant of the judge at the Supreme court of the United States William J. Brennan, Jr. Between 1962 and 1963, he worked for the department of competition to the Ministry for Justice. In 1969, it joined the University of Chicago and its Faculty of Law, where he is still professor, just like his/her son Eric Posner. It was one of the writers founder of the Journal off Legal Studies in 1972. The Ronald Reagan Resident named Posner at the post of Judge at the Court of Appeal for the seventh circuit, sitting at Chicago, in 1981. According to revolving, he was President of this court of 1993 to 2000. The ideas of Posner combine in an unusual way a pragmatism in philosophy, an obedience of liberal to the traditional direction as regards policy and the economic arguments in its legal methodology. The greatest influence of Posner off remains the creation of the movement of the economic analysis of the right by its handbook of 1972 “Economic Analysis Law”. In December 2004, it begins a blog with Gary Becker, member elect of the Nobel Prize in economy.

Towards the Supreme court?

The name of Posner, because of its work as a judge and of its university influence, had been mentioned in a project of president George W. Bush for potential nominations at the Supreme court of the United States in order to replace Sandra Day O'Connor judge. Robert S. Boynton, in an article of the The Washington Post , had then said that it could never sit at such a station because of certain positions which it took and who return it very discussed:

Of the remarks in an article of 1999 in “Raritan Quaterly review” according to which the “rule off law” is a superfluous concept of the legal theory.
a plea for the creation of a market of sale and purchase of babies, on the basis that such a market would lead to a result more efficient than the system current of government agencies.
Support for the legalization of the cannabis and the LSD.

According to Robert S. Boynton: " “Sounding Off,” has off review Richard Posner' S '' Public Intellectuals '' " , The Washington Post Book World , January 20,2002.

Economic Analysis of the Right

The name of Posner is indissociablement related to that of the economic Analyze of the right. With William Moors, under the direction of Gary Becker then with the National Office off the Economic Research, they, at the end of the years 1960, carried out a series of research on the economic bases of the legal reasoning and on the economic operation of a legal series of phenomenon: operation of the courts of justice, civil law, constitutional law and base of the principal legal concepts.

Having begun its intellectual course with an aggressive attack of the traditional bases of the American right of the competition (Antitrust Law) while making use of the basic principles of the Economic scene, it was then illustrated by widening this research orientation to the entirety of the right of Common law : Contracts, Wrongs, Criminal Offenses, Procces off litigation . Its principal thesis which guides the major part of its work is that of the efficiency of the right of common law , going until speaking about “efficiency” (according to the economic theory) like synonym and even further, like Justice drank.

The fundamental book of Posner on this subject is its first handbook “Economic analysis off Law” (1972) where it launches the bases of the research program which will be later the “Law & Economics” (this handbook in is today with its seventh edition, published in 2007). The same year, it founds the Journal off Legal Studies, at the university of Chicago. In parallel of the Newspaper off Law and Economics, this newspaper is since the reference with regard to the economic analysis of the legal phenomena. Posner was the writer of this newspaper of 1972 to 1982 (date of its nomination at the post of judge). He was also writer of the American Law and Economics Review of 1995 to 2005.

Major positions

The moral and political positioning of Posner is not easy to summarize. His/her parents were members of the American Communist party and in its youth (as a clerk of justice), he was often regarded as liberal. However, it developed many arguments today tending to reveal it at the sides conservatives, like its standpoint on the problems of national defense. More still, if he is regarded as a judge and an academic with the principles of right-hand side, the Pragmatisme of Posner, his claim of a relativism and moral skepticism, as its attachment with the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche move away it from the conservatives. Among his greater sources of influences, one counts the American lawyers Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and judges it Learned Hand (from which famous the Formule from Hand is drawn).

; Right and Private life He was opposed to the law on the right to the private life of 1981, with the reason that the interests protected by this type of law are not really distinctive compared to other similar interests. According to him, the private life is still not protected in an efficient way.

; Abortion He wrote many opinions in favor of the right to the abortion. ; Breach of contract He also wrote a certain number of opinions in favor of the efficient rupture of contracts. An efficient rupture is a situation where the rupture of the contract between has and B, with the profit of C, pleasing for the company more profits than of costs, even when damages are paid with the person injured by the rupture.

; Anti-drug war I laid down the American policy in the fight against the drug of “chimerical”. It often evoked the difficulties in making apply the legislation to the cannabis and the lack of reasons of criminaliser the cannabis more than another substance.

Publications

One cannot make that a selection of works of Richard Posner so much the author is prolific.

Selection of Books

2007. Economic Analysis off Law , 7th ED., ISBN 978-0-735-56354-4
2007. The Little Book off Plagiarism , ISBN 978-0-375-42475-5
2006. Not has Suicide Pact: The Constitution in has off Time National Emergency , ISBN 978-0-19-530427-5
2006. Uncertain Shield: The U.S. System Intelligence in the Throes off Reform , ISBN 978-0-742-55127-5
2005. Preventing Surprised Attacks: Reform intelligence in the Wake off 9/11 , ISBN 978-0-742-54947-0
2004. Catastrophe: Risk and Response , ISBN 978-0-19-530647-7
2003. Public Intellectuals: In Study off Declines , ISBN 978-0-674-00633-1
2003. Law, Pragmatism and Democracy , ISBN 978-0-674-01081-9
2001. Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Presidential Election and the Short , ISBN 978-0-691-09073-3
2001. Antitrust Law , 2nd ED., ISBN 978-0-226-67576-3
2001. Frontiers off Legal Theory , ISBN 978-0-674-01360-5
1998. Law and Literature (ED. increased review and), ISBN 978-0-674-51471-3
1996. Law and Legal Theory in England and America , ISBN 978-0-19-826471-2
1996. Federal The Courts: Challenge and Reform (2nd ED.), ISBN 978-0-674-29627-5
1995. Aging and Old Old , ISBN 978-0-226-67568-8
1995. Overcoming Law , ISBN 978-0-674-64926-2
1992. Sex and Reason , ISBN 978-0-674-80280-3
1990. Cardozo: With Study in Reputation , ISBN 978-0-226-67556-5
1990. The Problems off Jurisprudence , ISBN 978-0-674-70876-1
1988. Law and Literature: In Misunderstood Relation , ISBN 978-0-674-51468-3
1981. The Economics off Justice , ISBN 978-0-674-23526-7

Selections of Articles

''Foreword: In Political Runs (The Supreme Court, 2004 Term) '', 119 Harv. L. rev. 31 (2005)
" Transaction Costs and Antitrust Concerns in the Licensing off Intellectual Property" , 4 J. Marshall rev. Intel. Prop. L. 325 (2005)
Pragmatism Versus Purposivism in First Amendment Analysis , 54 Stan. L. rev. 737 (2002)
The Problematics off Moral and Legal Theory , 111 Harv. L. rev. 1637 (1998)
Statutory Interpretation - In the Classroom and in the Courtroom , 50 U. Chi. L. rev. 800 (1983)

External bonds

(Unless otherwise specified, the following bonds return to English sites)

Larissa MacFarquhar, " The Bench Burner" , The New Yorker of December 10th, 2001, p. 78
its biography by the University of Chicago
its site at the University of Chicago
Project Posner: collection of all its judgments, with search engine
The Becker-Posner Blog
entered Complete-Review.com on Richard A. Posner
" Reactions to Richard Posner' S Public Intellectuals" on Complete-Review.com
Lawrence A. Cunningham, Cardozo and Posner: With Study in Contracts, 36 William & Mary Law Review 1379 (1995)
Richard Posner speaks about his book '' Public Intellectuals ''
Soziale Innovation, Eine Serie in brand eins Folge 8: Wohlstandsmaximierung Article in the German economic magazine brand eins of August 2006 (in German)
Interview on Boldtype.com about its book The Little Book off Plagiarism

bonds

School of Chicago
New institutional economy
Competition

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