Senior Lecturer Richard Allen Posner, a longtime University of Chicago Law School scholar, former federal appellate judge, and pioneer in the field of law and economics, died on November 10. He was 87.
Posner, who joined the Law School faculty in 1969 and spent 36 years as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, is widely considered to be the most influential legal scholar of all time and, during his time on the bench, was considered to be among the most powerful jurists outside the Supreme Court. He authored thousands of court opinions, hundreds of academic articles, and dozens of books, and was a leading scholar of law and economics, a field born and developed at the University of Chicago beginning in the early 20th century.
The Law School’s eminence in the field—which brings the tools of economic theory to bear on legal rules and institutions, offering the potential to improve policymaking, market efficiency, and even judicial decision making—is what drew Posner to Chicago. He quickly became a top figure, provoking debate with views about the efficiency of common law and, in 1973, authoring the field’s seminal book The Economic Analysis of Law, which is now in its ninth edition.
“There has never been a legal scholar quite as prolific, influential, and endlessly curious as Dick Posner—he was a giant whose influence on our legal system, the field of law and economics, and on our law school cannot be overstated,” said Law School Dean Adam Chilton, the Howard G. Krane Professor of Law. “As a law and economics scholar and torts professor, I doubt there has been a week that’s gone by since I started teaching at the Law School where I haven’t talked about one of Dick’s ideas or opinions. We will mourn his loss deeply, and on behalf of the entire Law School community, I extend our deepest condolences to his family.”
In 1978, Posner was named the University of Chicago’s Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law, a title he held until 1981, when he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He was the chief judge of the court from 1993 to 2000 and retired from the bench in 2017 having written some 3,300 opinions on a wide range of issues. As a judge, Posner was known as a tough and often unrelenting questioner and a staunch advocate for legal pragmatism. He disdained jargon-filled opinions.
Editor’s Note: Please check back soon. In the coming days, we will be posting a longer tribute to Judge Posner’s extraordinary life and career, including remembrances from his colleagues.
