Experts
Richard Posner
Judge, 7th Court of Appeals; Author; Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law
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Judge Posner believes that as a social good, privacy is overrated because it means people are able to conceal things. Read More
April 24, 2008 | In Truth & Justice
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Richard Posner: What is your outlook?
Judge Posner talks about why he is pessimistic about destructive technologies that continue to be developed. Read More
April 24, 2008 | In Future
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Judge Posner talks about the "Rise of knowledge." Read More
April 24, 2008 | In Future
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The Personal Philosophy of Richard Posner
Richard Posner's Hobbesian outlook. Read More
April 24, 2008 | In Belief
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Richard Posner: Constitutional Interpretation
Posner first talks about the challenge of constitutional interpretation and how he believes that the entire body of constitutional law was created with free interpretation of the Constitution. Read More
April 24, 2008 | In Truth & Justice
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Richard Posner: Interpreting the Law
Judge Posner weighs in on what many see as Justice Scalia's and Justice Breyer's "active liberty" approach. Read More
April 24, 2008 | In Truth & Justice
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Judge Posner would like to see heavier carbon taxes and that Americans in general are under-taxed. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Inspiration & Wisdom
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Richard Posner: How do you contribute?
Posner talks about his contribution to economics and his interest in catastrophic risks, particularly global warming. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Belief
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Richard Posner on Tomorrow's Supreme Court
Judge Richard Posner on the future of the Roberts court. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Future
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Judge Posner: Public Opinion in Public Affairs
Judge Posner talks about the difference between judges at the Circuit level and the Supreme Court when it comes to public opinion influencing decision. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Truth & Justice
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Richard Posner: Interpreting the Law
Judge Posner talks about the uncertainty of American law and why this means that Judges can't always makes cost-benefit analysis. He goes on to talk about his ideological development and reacting negatively to the Vietnam protests. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Truth & Justice
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Richard Posner: What do you do?
Judge Posner first talks about his academic work. He goes on to tell us how he determines verdicts, the rationality of arguments and if he ever looks back at past decisions. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Identity
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Posner talks about growing up in New York City during World War II. Read More
December 18, 2007 | In Identity
Richard Posner is an influential legal theorist and author and currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Posner attended Yale as an undergraduate, and was first in his class at Harvard Law School. Following his graduation from Harvard, Posner clerked for Justice William J. Brennan Jr.; he later worked as assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. In 1969, Posner began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, where he remains a Senior Lecturer to this day. In 1981, Posner was appointed to Seventh Circuit's Court of Appeals. Posner helped found the law and economics movement, which argues that the primary goal of law should be outcomes that are economically sensible and efficient rather than "just." Known for his eclectic mix of beliefs, Posner can't be pigeonholed as a liberal or a conservative: he has written that marijuana should be legalized and also that there are times when "torture should be used." Posner was the founding editor of the Journal of Legal Studies and (with Orley Ashenfelter) the American Law and Economics Review. Posner is the author of dozens of books, including Public Intellectuals, and The Problems of Jurisprudence, and How Judges Think, which was published in April 2008. His next book A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression will be released May 2009.
