Richard A. Epstein

Richard A. Epstein is considered one of the most influential legal thinkers of modern times. He is well known for his research and writings on a broad range of constitutional, economic, historical, and philosophical subjects. He has been a law professor since 1968.

He received an LLD, hc, from the University of Ghent, 2003, and was a Bradley Prize recipient in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Medical School, also since 1983. He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991 to 2001.

His books include The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act (Hoover 2009); Supreme Neglect Antitrust Decrees in Theory and Practice: Why Less Is More (AEI 2007); Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation (Yale University Press 2006); How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution (Cato 2006). Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Law & Business; 8th ed. 2004); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism (University of Chicago 2003): Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Law & Business; 7th ed. 2000); Torts (Aspen Law & Business 1999); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good (Perseus Books 1998): Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Rights to Health Care (Addison-Wesley 1997); Simple Rules for a Complex World (Harvard 1995); Bargaining with the State (Princeton, 1993); Forbidden Grounds: The Case against Employment Discrimination Laws (Harvard 1992); Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (Harvard 1985); and Modern Products Liability Law (Greenwood Press 1980). He has written numerous articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects.

He has taught courses in administrative law, antitrust, civil procedure, communications law, constitutional law, contracts, corporations, criminal law, employment discrimination law, environmental law, food and drug law, health law and policy, jurisprudence, labor law, property, labor law; land use planning, patents, real estate development and finance, individual, estate and corporate taxation, Roman Law; torts, and workers’ compensation.

Education: AB, 1964, Columbia College; BA, 1966, Oxford University; LLB, 1968, Yale University