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Jody Kraus

  • Patricia D. and R. Paul Yetter Professor of Law
  • Full-time faculty
education

J.D., Yale Law School, 1990
Ph.D., University of Arizona, 1987
M.A., University of Arizona, 1984
B.A., Ohio State University, 1982

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Fields of study
  • Company, business and transaction law
areas of expertise

contracts
Commercial law
law and economy
Legal philosophy
Political philosophy

Jurist and philosopher Jody Kraus focuses his research on the relationship between moral and economic legal theories in general, with a particular focus on contract law. He is co-author (with Columbia Professor Robert E. Scott) of a leading case book, Contract Law and Theory (fifth edition). Kraus and Scott also recently co-wrote The case against equity in American contract law (93 Review of Southern California Law 1323 (2020)). As an expert on contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code, Kraus has testified in both US and foreign disputes and regularly advises lawyers around the world on these issues.

When Kraus joined the Law School faculty in 2012, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. He teaches introductory and advanced contract courses and has taught courses on contract law philosophy, legal theory, political philosophy, and legal philosophy. He is on the faculty of the new Columbia Law School Executive LL.M. in the Global Business Law course.

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Kraus was division organizer for the Contracts and Commercial Law section of the American Law and Economics Association. He is a member of the American Law Institute, Advisory Board of Legal Theory, Association of American Law Schools, American Philosophical Association, and the New York and Virginia Bar Associations.

Publications

  • 'The Case Against American Contract Law', Review of Southern California Law , 2020.
  • The correspondence between contract and commitment, Columbia Law Review , 2009
  • Personal sovereignty and normative power skepticism, Columbia Law Review Sidebar, 2009
  • Contract Design and the Structure of Contractual Intent, (mit Robert E. Scott), Review of New York University Law , 2009
  • From Langdell to Law and Economics: Two Concepts of Stare Decisis in Contract Law and Theory, Virginia Law Review , 2008
  • Contract Law and Theory , (mit Robert E. Scott), LexisNexis, 2007
  • A critique of the efficiency-performance hypothesis, Yale Law Journal pocket section , 2007
  • Transparency and Resolve in Common Law Jurisprudence: A Philosophical Defense of Explanatory Economic Analysis, Virginia Law Review , 2007
  • Legal vagueness and moral justification, William and Mary Law Review , 2007
  • The legal foundations of company and commercial law , (Ed. With Steven D. Walt), Cambridge University Press, 2000
  • The Limits of Hobbesian Contractarism , Cambridge University Press, 1993

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