Eric Posner

Eric Andrew Posner (born December 5, 1965) is an American law professor at the University of Chicago Law School and son of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit judge Richard Posner. He is a professor of international law, contract law, and bankruptcy, among other areas. As of 2014, he was the 4th most-cited legal scholar in the United States.

Education

Posner attended Yale University (B.A., M.A. in philosophy, summa cum laude) and received his law degree from Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude) in 1991. He clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the D.C. Circuit.

Career

Posner is the Kirkland and Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he joined the faculty in 1998. From 1998 to 2011, he was an editor of The Journal of Legal Studies. He is the author or co-author of many books and articles, on subjects including international law, cost-benefit analysis, and constitutional law.

He has taught courses in international law, foreign relations law, contracts, and game theory and the law. His current research focuses on international law, foreign relations law, and international tribunals.

In 2005, he posted about the trial of the deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

In June 2013, Posner and Jameel Jaffer, fellow at the Open Society Foundations, participated in the New York Times's Room for Debate series. Posner responded to concerns about expanded National Security Agency (NSA) programs that vacuum information about the private lives of American citizens. Those who oppose the surveillance claim that the collection and storing of unlimited metadata is a highly invasive form of surveillance of citizens' communications. Posner claimed that Americans obtain the services they want by disclosing private information to strangers such as "the market services of doctors, insurance companies, Internet service providers, employers, therapists and the rest, or the nonmarket services of the government like welfare and security." Posner argued that, since 2001 there has not been an incident in which the United States government used information "obtained for security purposes with "war-on-terror-related surveillance" technologies to "target a political opponent, dissenter or critic."

In 2015, Posner co-founded the book review, The New Rambler.

Select writings

Books

• Law and Social Norms (Harvard University Press, 2000). ISBN 0-674-00814-6
• The Limits of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2005) (with Jack Goldsmith). ISBN 0-19-516839-9
• Terror in the Balance: Security, Liberty, and the Courts (Oxford University Press, 2007) (with Adrian Vermeule). ISBN 0-19-531025-X
• Perils of Global Legalism (University of Chicago Press, 2009) ISBN 0-226-67574-2
• Law and Happiness (University of Chicago Press, 2010) ISBN 0-226-67600-5
• Climate Change Justice (Princeton University Press, 2010) (with David Weisbach) ISBN 0-691-13775-7
• The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic (Oxford University Press 2011) ISBN 0-19-976533-2,
• Contract Law and Theory (Aspen 2011) ISBN 1-4548-1071-8
• Economic Foundations of International Law (Harvard 2013) (with Alan Sykes) ISBN 0674066995
• The Twilight of Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press 2014) ISBN 978-0199313440

Articles

• "Understanding the Resemblance Between Modern and Traditional Customary International Law", 40 Va. J. Int’l Law 639 (2000; with Jack L. Goldsmith)
• "Moral and Legal Rhetoric in International Relations: A Rational Choice Perspective", 31 J. Legal Stud. S115 (2002; with Jack Goldsmith)
• "Do States Have a Moral Obligation to Comply with International Law?", 55 Stan. L. Rev. 1901 (2003)
• "A Theory of the Laws of War", 70 U. Chi. L. Rev. 297 (2003)
• "Transnational Legal Process and the Supreme Court’s 2003–2004 Term: Some Skeptical Observations", 12 Tulsa Journal of Comparative and International Law 23 (2004)
• "Judicial Independence in International Tribunals", 93 Calif. L. Rev. 1 (2005; with John Yoo)
• "Optimal War and Jus ad Bellum", 93 Georgetown L.J. 993 (2005) (with Alan Sykes)
• "Terrorism and the Laws of War", 5 Chi. J. Int’l L. 423 (2005)
• "International Law and the Disaggregated State", 32 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 797 (2005)
• "International Law and the Rise of China", 7 Chi. J. Int’l L. 1 (2006; with John Yoo)
• "International Law: A Welfarist Approach", 73 U. Chi. L. Rev. 487 (2006)
• "An Economic Analysis of State and Individual Responsibility Under International Law", Amer. L. & Econ. Rev. (forthcoming; with Alan Sykes)
• "Deference to the Executive in the United States after September 11: Congress, the Courts, and the Office of Legal Counsel," 35 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 213 (2012).
• "Is the International Court of Justice Biased?," J. Legal Stud. (forthcoming) (with Miguel de Figueiredo).

Newspaper columns

• "Judges v. Trump: Be Careful What You Wish For," The New York Times, February 15, 2017
• "A Threat That Belongs Behind Bars," The New York Times, June 25, 2006
• "Apply the Golden Rule to al Qaeda?", The Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2006, p. A9
• "Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme—the Internet’s favorite currency will collapse", Slate Magazine, April 11, 2013