Posner, Richard Allen

Pozner graduated from Yale College (AB, 1959, cum laude) with a degree in English, and Harvard Law School (Bachelor of Law, 1962, with honors), where he was first in class ^[6] and president of Harvard Law Review. After serving as clerk for a judge of the United States Supreme Court William Brennan from 1962 to 1963, he served as adviser to Philip Elman, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission; Posner subsequently argued that the Federal Trade Commission should be abolished ^[6] . He continued to work in the Office of the Under Secretary of Justice at the US Department of Justice, under the leadership of Tergood Marshall. ^[6]

In 1968, Posner accepted the offer to teach at Stanford University. ^[6] In 1969, Posner became a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. His son, Eric Pozner, also teaches there. Richard Posner is one of the founders of the Journal of Legal Studies (1972). President Ronald Reagan appointed Pozner as the judge of the seventh district in 1981 ^[5] . He served as the chief judge of this court from 1993 to 2000, while remaining a professor at the University of Chicago. ^[5] Posner is a pragmatist in philosophy, a classical liberal in politics, and an economist in legal methodology. A prolific author of articles and books on a wide range of issues, including law and economics, law and literature, federal justice, moral theory, intellectual property, antitrust laws, public intelligentsia and the history of law. He is also well-known as a publicist covering a wide range of public events in the US and around the world, including disputes over the 2000 presidential elections, the case of President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky ^[5] , and the impeachment process, and in 2003 the invasion of Iraq, its analysis. Of great importance are Posner's work on law and economics - the New York Times “called him” one of the most important scientists in the field of antitrust law of the second half of the last century. ” In December 2004, Posner began blogging with Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker. ^[7] He also has a blog at Atlantic, where he discusses the financial crisis. ^[8] Pozner was mentioned in 2005 as a potential candidate to replace Sandra Day O'Connor because of his fame as a scholar and judge, but Robert S. Boynton wrote in the Washington Post that he believes that Posner never will not sit in the Supreme Court, because, despite his “obvious brilliance”, he is a supporter of “outrageous” positions:

The controversial article in 1999, Raritan, that the rule of law is an incidental and optional element of legal ideology;

The argument that buying and selling babies in the free market will lead to better results than the current situation with state-regulated adoption. ^[9]

Support the legalization of marijuana and LSD. ^[ten]

The political and moral views of Posner are difficult to generalize. His parents were associated with the American Communist Party, and in his youth, and in the 1960s as an assistant to William Brennan, his views are generally considered liberal. However, in response to some of the alleged events of the late 1960s, Posner's views took on a conservative bias. He met with the Chicago School of Economics, Aaron Director and George Stigler , while still a professor at Stanford University ^[6] . Later, Posner summarized his views on law and the economy in 1973 in the book “Economic Analysis of Law” ^[6] .

Today, although Posner is generally regarded as a conservative, his pragmatism, his skilled moral relativism and moral skepticism, ^[11] and his love of Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought distinguishes him from most American conservatives. He is also a follower of American lawyers Oliver Wendel Holmes Jr. and Lerned Hand.

Antitrust Policy

Along with Robert Bork, Posner helped shape the antitrust changes of the 1970s. According to Posner, the antitrust laws of the 1960s actually contributed to setting higher prices for consumers, and he considers lower prices to be the most important goal of any antitrust policy. ^[6] Theories of Posner and Bork became prevailing in academia and in the Justice Department of the Bush Sr. Administration ^[6] .

Privacy

He loudly opposed the right to privacy in 1981, arguing that certain interests protected by confidentiality were not special. He stated that confidentiality is protected in ways that are economically ineffective.

Abortion

He wrote several articles supporting the right to abortion, including the right to constitutional protection of “surgical abortion” in some circumstances.

Breach of contract

He wrote about "effective breach" of contracts. Violations often lead to worse results for society: if the seller violates the terms of the contract for the supply of building materials, the buyer’s workers are forced to stand idle and the buyer is looking for a replacement. Losses of production are losses in the value of the company, the wages of its employees and, consequently, social losses. An effective violation will be a situation where the benefit exceeds the costs, since the seller is in a better position, even after paying losses to the buyer (for example, if some third party experienced a much greater need for building materials, and was ready to pay a rather high price, higher the price of the original recipient and to compensate for the expected costs of breach of contract)

Drug trafficking

He described the US War Against Drugs as quixotic. In a 2003 interview with CNBC , he talked about the difficulty of enforcing criminal marijuana trafficking laws and argued that it was difficult to justify criminalizing marijuana compared to other substances.

Animal Protection

Posner participated in a debate on the ethics of using animals in scientific research with philosopher Peter Singer in 2001 in Slate magazine. He argues that respect for animal rights is contrary to the meaning of humanity, and that empathy for the pain and suffering of animals does not cancel the progress of society. ^[12] In addition, he claims to trust his moral intuition, and she tells him the following: “it’s wrong to give the same weight to suffering, for example, a dog as suffering to a child.” Pozner also leaves open the possibility that facts of knowledge about animals and humans can change his position in the future. Posner further states that people whose opinions were changed when considering Singer’s ethical position on “Freeing Animals” do not see the “radicalism of an ethical approach to animals, an ethical vision that is more important in a healthy pig than in a mentally retarded child that teams causing less pain to humans in order to prevent more dog pain, and that if a chimpanzee has 1 percent of the psychic abilities of a normal person, it will require sacrifice from a person to save 101 chimpanzees. ” ^[12]

Torture

When examining Alan Dershowitz ’s book , “Why Terrorism Works: Understanding This Threat, Responding to the Challenge,” Pozner writes in the New Republic newspaper, September 2002, that if torture is the only way to obtain the information necessary to prevent a nuclear bomb in the Times square , torture, should be used and will be used to obtain information. ... anyone who doubts that this should be held accountable. " ^{[13] [14]}

Prisoners

Posner disagrees with the earlier decision of his protege Frank Easterbrook regarding the rights of prisoners. Easterbrook’s decision that female guards could watch male prisoners during their last showers should stem from the belief that prisoners are “members of various kinds, really like the kind of parasites deprived of human dignity and the right to respect.” Pozner writes, “I cannot see 1.5 million American prisoners in this world.” ^[6]

Newspapers

Posner supported the creation of a law prohibiting hyperlinks or paraphrases of copyrighted material as a means to prevent what he considers to be free use of journalism. ^{[15] [16] [17]} His co-blogger Gary Becker simultaneously posted opposing views that while the Internet could harm newspapers, he would not harm the viability of the press, but rather stimulate it. ^[18]

Posner is one of the most prolific jurists, as evidenced by the huge number of court decisions and other documents prepared by him. ^[19] Unlike many judges, he himself writes all his decisions ^[6] . In 1999, Posner was invited as a private intermediary between parties involved in the antitrust case of Microsoft ^[5] .

According to the survey, Legal Affairs magazine named Posner as one of the top twenty legal thinkers in the United States. ^[20]

• 2009. A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression, ISBN 978-0-674-03514-0
• 2009. Law and Literature, 3rd. ed., ISBN 978-0-674-03246-0
• 2008. How Judges Think, ISBN 978-0-674-02820-3
• 2007. Countering Terrorism: Blurred Focus, Halting Steps, ISBN 978-0-7425-5883-0
• 2007. Economic Analysis of Law, 7th ed., ISBN 978-0-7355-6354-4
• 2007. The Little Book of Plagiarism, ISBN 978-0-375-42475-5
• 2006. Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency, ISBN 978-0-19-530427-5
• 2006. Uncertain Shield: The US Intelligence System in the Throes of Reform, ISBN 978-0-7425-5127-5
• 2005. Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11, ISBN 978-0-7425-4947-0
• 2004. Catastrophe: Risk and Response, ISBN 978-0-19-530647-7
• 2003. The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (Harvard Univ. Press) (with William Landes), ISBN 978-0-674-01204-2
• 2003. Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, ISBN 978-0-674-00633-1
• 2003. Law, Pragmatism and Democracy, ISBN 978-0-674-01081-9
• 2001. Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Presidential Election and the Courts, ISBN 978-0-691-09073-3
• 2001. Antitrust Law, 2nd ed., ISBN 978-0-226-67576-3
• 2001. Frontiers of Legal Theory, ISBN 978-0-674-01360-5
• 1999. The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory, ISBN 978-0-674-00799-4
• 1998. Law and Literature (revised and enlarged ed.), ISBN 978-0-674-51471-3
• 1996. Law and Legal Theory in England and America, ISBN 978-0-19-826471-2
• 1996. The Federal Courts: Challenge and Reform (2d ed.), ISBN 978-0-674-29627-5
• 1995. Aging and Old Age, ISBN 978-0-226-67568-8
• 1995. Overcoming Law, ISBN 978-0-674-64926-2
• 1992. Sex and Reason, ISBN 978-0-674-80280-3
• 1990. Cardozo: A Study in Reputation, ISBN 978-0-226-67556-5
• 1990. The Problems of Jurisprudence, ISBN 978-0-674-70876-1
• 1988. Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation, ISBN 978-0-674-51468-3
• 1981. The Economics of Justice, ISBN 978-0-674-23526-7

Articles

• Foreword: A Political Court (The Supreme Court, 2004 Term), 119 Harv. L. Rev. 31 (2005)
• “Transaction Costs and Antitrust Concerns in the Licensing of Intellectual Property," 4 J. Marshall Rev. Intell Prop. L. 325 (2005)
• Pragmatism Versus Purposivism in First Amendment Analysis, 54 Stan. L. Rev. 737 (2002)
• The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 1637 (1998)
• Reply to Judge Richard Posner on the Inseparability of Law and Morality, RJLR_3_1_1_.pdf (1998)
• Statutory Interpretation - In the Classroom and in the Courtroom, 50 U. Chi. L. Rev. 800 (1983)
• The Economics of the Baby Shortage: A Modest Proposal 7 J. Legal Stud. 323 (with Elisabeth M. Landes) (1978)

• Blaug M. Pozner, Richard A. // 100 great economists after Keynes = Great Economists since Keynes: An introduction to the lives & works of one hundred great economists of the past. - SPb. : Economics, 2009 .-- S. 236-237. - 384 p. - (Library of the Economic School, vol. 42). - 1,500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-903816-03-3 .