Jody Kraus

Jody S. Kraus is "a noted expert on contracts and commercial law. His prolific scholarship focuses on the relationship between moral and economic theories of law in general, and contract law in particular."^[1] In 2012, he joined the faculty of Columbia Law School, and is also a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Philosophy. He will serve, in addition, as co-director of the Law School’s Center for Law & Philosophy.^[2] Prior to joining the faculties of Columbia Law and Columbia University, Kraus was the David E. Kaufman & Leopold C. Glass Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he also co-directed the Institute for Law and Philosophy. Before joining Penn Law, he was on the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law as the Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law and Philosophy and as the Albert Clark Tate, Jr. Research Professor. He teaches contracts, commercial law, political theory, and jurisprudence. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.D. in Philosophy and an M.A. from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. from The Ohio State University. He received numerous awards at the University of Arizona and served as a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He entered Yale Law as a member of the Yale Law Journal after having been published in the Journal before enrolling.

He is a popular professor, known for his rough cold calls and in depth lectures. He frequently uses economic theory in his lectures. He is co-author of the textbook, Contract Law and Theory. He was parodied in the 100th Anniversary Libel Show. He is rumored to have been a top candidate in the University of Texas School of Law dean search in 2006, and the University of Virginia School of Law dean search in 2007.

Publications

Books

• Contract Law and Theory (with Robert E. Scott) (LexisNexis, 4th ed. 2007).
• The Jurisprudential Foundations of Corporate and Commercial Law (ed. with Steven D. Walt) (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
• The Limits of Hobbesian Contractarianism (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

References

1. Four Distinguished Scholars to Join Faculty, Columbia Law School. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
2. Four Distinguished Scholars to Join Faculty, Columbia Law School. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.

• Ethics 112 (April 2002): 626–628. doi:10.1086/338611 Book Review of Kraus, Jody S., and Walt, Steven D., eds. The Jurisprudential Foundations of Corporate and Commercial Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. 245. $54.95 (cloth). Reviewed by Eric A. Posner, University of Chicago
• Virginia Law Weekly. 24 February 2006, Volume 58, Number 17. Law Review symposium debates philosophy of private law. By Scott Dorfman '07, News Editor