New Law Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The following law professors have been elected as Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences:  Ian Ayres (Yale), Richard Fallon (Harvard), Larry Kramer (Stanford), and Lawrence Lessig (Stanford).  Several practitioners were also elected, including the new Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and Seth Waxman, now practicing with Wilmer, Cutler in Washington, D.C.  In addition, Lee Epstein, who is moving to the Law School at Northwestern University, was elected in the Political Science category.

In most divisions of the Academy, seniority (i.e., several decades of contributions) is a major factor in the elections to the Academy, but less so, oddly, in law.  Sins of omission, rather than inclusion, are the main problem it seems to me after observing this process for a number of years.  Like the failure to give the Nobel Prize in Literature to James Joyce, the failure to elect a few especially distinguished senior figures in the legal academy will soon bring the whole affair into disrepute.  Off the top of my head:  Herbert Hovenkamp (Iowa), Geoffrey Miller (NYU), Lawrence Sager (Texas), Thomas Ulen (Illinois), James J. White (Michigan) had better be elected soon if the AAAS is to remain a credible honor.  Each of these scholars has, uncontroversially, made contributions to law and legal scholarship at least as susbstantial as those of many current members of the Academy.  I assume the AAAS will rectify these omissions before long.

Here is a listing of the top ten law schools for fall 2006 by the number of non-retired faculty elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; see the caveats about what this means here.  Faculty who are part-time or "over 70" count for .5 in the total. 

1. Yale University (19.5) (B. Ackerman, I. Ayres, J. Balkin, L. Brilmayer, G. Calabresi [part-time], S. Carter, *M. Damaska, D. Days, R. Ellickson, W. Eskridge, O. Fiss, M. Graetz, H. Koh, A. Kronman, J. Langbein, J. Mashaw, R. Post, J. Resnik, R. Romano, C. Rose, A. Schwartz, R. Winter [part-time])

2. Harvard University (18) (L. Bebchuk, R. Clark, R. Fallon, C. Fried, M. Glendon, M. Horwitz, E. Kagan, D. Kennedy, R. Kennedy, L. Kaplow, D. Meltzer, F. Michelman, M. Minow, R. Mnookin, S. Shavell, L. Tribe, M. Tushnet, R. Unger)

3. Columbia University (12) (*Barb. Black, V. Blasi [part-time], L. Bollinger, J. Coffee, R. Ferguson, G. Fletcher, *R. Gardner, R. Gilson [part-time], *J. Greenberg, K. Greenawalt, L. Liebman, T. Merrill, *H. Monaghan, J. Raz [part-time], R. Scott, *M. Sovern)

4. University of California, Berkeley (11) (*R. Buxbaum, J. Choper, R. Cooter, *M. Eisenberg, D. Farber, P. Frickey, J. Gordley, H.H. Kay, D. Rubinfeld, S. Scheffler, H. Scheiber, F. Zimring)

5. University of Chicago (10.5) (D. Baird, D. Currie, F. Easterbrook [part-time], R. Epstein, R. Helmholz, S. Levmore, M. Nussbaum, R. Posner [part-time], G. Stone, D. Strauss, C. Sunstein, D. Wood [part-time])

6 New York University (9.5) (*A. Amsterdam, *J. Cohen, *N. Dorsen, *R. Dworkin [part-time], J. Ferejohn [part-time], S. Issacharoff, S. Law, T. Nagel, B. Neuborne, R. Stewart, J. Waldron, J. Weiler)

7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (8.5) (P. Ellsworth, B. Frier, D. Laycock, R. Lempert, C. MacKinnon, D. Regan, *B. Simpson [part-time], J. Vining, J.B. White)

8. Stanford University (7) (G. Casper, J. Cohen, *L. Friedman, L. Kramer, R. Gilson [part-time], T. Grey, L. Lessig, K. Sullivan)

9. University of Texas, Austin (3) (P. Bobbitt, S. Levinson, M. Yudof)

10. Duke University (1.5) (W. Dellinger [part-time), D. Horowitz)

10. University of Virginia (1.5) (V. Blasi [part-time], G.E. White)