emory university law school

Mitchel de S.-O.-l’E. Lasser
(March 2014)
Jack G. Clarke Professor of Law
Director of Graduate Studies
Cornell Law School
118 Myron Taylor Hall,
Ithaca, NY 14853-4901
(607) 255-3383
[email protected]
Education
Ph.D., Yale University, Department of Comparative Literature (1995).
- Dissertation Advisors: Profs. Peter Brooks and Geoffrey Hartman.
M.A., Yale University, Department of French Literature (1990).
J.D., Harvard Law School (1989).
B.A., Yale College (1986).
- Major: French Literature.
Academic Honors
Jack G. Clarke Chair, Cornell Law School (2007-).
Fulbright Distinguished Visiting Chair in Law, European University Institute, Florence,
Italy (Spring 2003).
Samuel D. Thurman Chair, University of Utah College of Law (2002-2004).
Whiting Fellowship (1994-1995), Enders Fellowship (1993), and Yale University
Fellowship (1989-1993).
- Doctoral research and dissertation fellowships.
Fulbright Scholar (France, 1993-1994).
- Full Fellowship grant to research the French judicial system.
Phi Beta Kappa, Summa cum laude, Distinction in the Major, Yale College (1986).
Teaching Positions, Professional Experience
Jack G. Clarke Professor of Law, Cornell Law School (2007-); Professor (2004-);
Visiting Professor (Fall 2003).
- Courses:
Comparative Law: The Civil Law Tradition;
Comparative Constitutional Law;
Cornell Graduate/Research Colloquium;
European Union Law.
- Primary law school committee responsibilities:
Director of Graduate Studies (2004-);
Chair, Graduate and International Committee (2004-2010);
Co-Director, Cornell Summer Institute of International and Comparative Law in
Paris (2006-).
Faculty Member, Católica Global School of Law, LLM in Law in a European and Global
Context (2010-).
Professeur invité, Université de Paris 5 (Renée Descartes), France (2013-)
Master 2 de Common Law et de droit comparé
Maurice R. Greenberg Visiting Professor, Yale Law School (2007-2008).
Visiting Professor, New York University School of Law (Fall 2006).
Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
(2002-2004); Professor (2000-2002); Associate Professor (1995-2000).
- Courses taught:
Comparative Law;
European Union Law;
Commercial Law;
Judicial Process;
Labor Law.
- Primary law school committee responsibilities:
Faculty Recruitment Committee (1998-2003, Chair 2001-2003).
Programs Committee (1995-1999, Chair 1997-1999).
Professeur invité, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) (January 2006).
Professeur invité, Université de Paris 1 (Sorbonne-Panthéon), France
D.E.A. Graduate Program in comparative law (February 2005, Fall 2002, Spring 2001).
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Professeur invité, Universités de Genève et de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Centre de droit comparé, de droit européen et de législations étrangères (April-June 2003
and 2004).
Fulbright Distinguished Visiting Chair in Law, European University Institute, Florence,
Italy (Spring 2003).
- Courses taught:
The Europeanisation of Constitutional Law (with Professor Jacques Ziller);
Constitutional Theory (with Professors Wojciech Sadurski and Neil Walker).
Visiting Lecturer, London School of Economics, UK
Graduate Program in comparative law (March, 2004).
Graduate Teaching Fellow, Yale University (1991-1995).
- Classes taught (T.A.): Constitutional Law and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
(for Professor Rogers Smith);
Problems in Cultural Criticism (for Professors Sara Suleri and Michael Holquist).
Admitted to New York State Bar (1990).
Publications
Monographs
Judicial Deliberations: A Comparative Analysis of Judicial Transparency and Legitimacy
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) (paperback edition, Oxford University Press,
2009).
Judicial Transformations: The Rights Revolution in the Courts of Europe
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Articles and Book Chapters
-- “Judicial (Self-)Portraits: Judicial Discourse in the French Legal System,”
104 YALE LAW JOURNAL 1325-1410 (1995).
-- “‘Lit. Theory’ Put to the Test: A Comparative Literary Analysis of American Judicial
Tests and French Judicial Discourse,” 111 HARVARD LAW REVIEW 689-770 (1998).
-- “Comparative Law and Comparative Literature: A Project in Progress,”
1997 UTAH LAW REVIEW 471-524 (1998).
-- “Do Judges Deploy Policy?,”
22 CARDOZO LAW REVIEW 863-899 (2001).
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-- “La MacDonald-isation du discours judiciaire français,”
45 ARCHIVES DE PHILOSOPHIE DU DROIT 137-148 (2001).
-- “Is There a Transatlantic Common Core of Judicial Discourse?,” in MAKING
EUROPEAN LAW. Essays on the Common Core Project 203-209 (2d ed., Mauro Bussani
and Ugo Mattei eds.) (Kluwer, 2002).
-- “Comparative Readings of Roscoe Pound’s Jurisprudence,” 50 AMERICAN JOURNAL
OF COMPARATIVE LAW 719-51 (2002), draft published as “Synthetic Readings of Roscoe
Pound’s Jurisprudence,” in GLOBAL JURIST 1: 2, Article 2 (2001).
-- “Anticipating Three Models of Judicial Control, Debate and Legitimacy: The European
Court of Justice, the Cour de cassation and the United States Supreme Court,” NYU Jean
Monnet Working Paper no. 1/03,
http://www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/papers/03/030101.html.
-- “The Question of Understanding,” in COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDIES: TRADITIONS
AND TRANSITIONS 197-239 (P. Legrand and R. Munday eds.) (Cambridge University
Press, 2003).
--“Trois palais ; deux styles?,” in LE DROIT CIVIL, AVANT TOUT UN STYLE? 121-152
(Nicholas Kasirer ed.) (Montréal : Éd. Thémis, 2003).
-- “The European Pasteurization of French Law,” 90 CORNELL LAW REVIEW 995-1083
(2005).
-- “Les récentes modifications du processus de décision à la Cour de cassation : le regard
bienveillant, mais inquiet, d’un comparatiste nord-américain,” REVUE TRIMESTRIELLE DE
DROIT CIVIL 691-706 (Oct.-Dec. 2006).
-- “Transforming Deliberations,” in THE LEGITIMACY OF HIGHEST COURTS’ RULINGS
(Maurice Adams, Jacco Bomhoff and Nick Huls, eds.) (The Hague: Asser Press, 2008).
-- “Is the separation of powers the basis for the legitimacy of an internationalised
judiciary?,” in HIGHEST COURTS AND GLOBALISATION (Sam Muller and Sidney
Richards, eds.) (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010).
-- “The Judicial Dynamics of the French and European Fundamental Rights Revolution,”
in COURTS AND CONSEQUENCES: THE EXERCISE OF JUDICIAL POWER IN COMPARATIVE
PERSPECTIVE (Gordon Silverstein, Donald Kagan and Diana Kapiszewski, eds.)
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012).
-- “Fundamentally Flawed: The CJEU’s Jurisprudence on Fundamental Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms,” 15 THEORETICAL INQUIRIES IN LAW 229 (2014).
-- “Les styles judiciaires : Une analyse comparée réaliste,” Droit et Sociéte (forthcoming
2014).
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-- “Fundamental Rights Fundamentalism: The ECJ’s Viking Approach,” (forthcoming).
Major Conferences / Papers
-- “Commenting Joseph Weiler,”
Collège de France conference, “Revisiting Van Gend en Loos” (June 2013).
-- “Les styles judiciaires : Une analyse comparée réaliste.”
Ecole normale supérieure conference, “Les styles judiciaires : Une analyse comparée,”
(April 2013).
-- “How Judges Reason.”
Católica Global School of Law, Lisbon (January 2013).
-- “The Promise of Judicial Transparency.”
Charles University Faculty of Law, Prague
Zagreb University of Faculty of Law (February 2013).
-- Co-organizer (With Roy Kreitner and Hila Shamir) of the Cornell Law School- Tel
Aviv University Conference, “Public and Private, Beyond Distinctions?” (October 2012).
-- “Collapsing Distinctions: The ECJ’s Viking Jurisprudence.”
Cornell Law School- Tel Aviv University Conference, “Public and Private, Beyond
Distinctions?” (October 2012).
-- “Fundamentally Flawed.”
Emory University School of Law (October 2011).
-- “Why Not to Refer to French Theory in American Legal Scholarship.”
Harvard Law School Conference on “Franco-American Legal Influence” (June 2011).
-- “On Negation, Metaphor and Metonymy in Michel Rosenfeld’s Identity of the
Constitutional Subject.”
Cardozo School of Law (October 2010).
-- “EU Conformity Review by the Numbers.”
Yale Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (November 2010).
-- “Presenting Judicial Transformations.”
Harvard European Law Association (April 2010).
-- “The Pasteurization of Labor Politics in ECJ Discourse.”
Institute for Global Law and Policy conference on “Developing Europe: Regional Policy
and Free Markets in European Legal Discourse.”
Harvard Law School (April 2010).
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-- “Professor Damaska’s 2 x 2 Grid.”
Yale Law School Conference in Honor of Mirjan Damaska (November 2008).
-- Keynote address and closing comments.
“Judicial Interpretation in Comparative Perspective: Legitimacy and Transparency of the
Highest Courts’ Judgments,” University of Zagreb (October 2008).
The conference was organized by the Jean Monnet Chair of European Public Law,
University of Zagreb Faculty of Law in cooperation with the United States Embassy to
Croatia and the Hanns Seidel Stiftung. Participants included:
Professor Sinisa Rodin, the Jean Monnet Chair of European Public Law, University of
Zagreb Faculty of Law (convener), a number of Justices of the Supreme Court and of the
Constitutional Court of Croatia, as well as Marko Ilešič (judge, European Court of
Justice), Zdenek Kuhn (ad hoc judge at European Court of Human Rights, Justice of the
Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic, and professor, Charles University,
Prague), and several academics, including Rajko Knez (Jean Monnet Chair, University of
Maribor), Adam Lazowski (Westminster University, London), and Tamara Ćapeta and
Alan Uzelac (University of Zagreb).
-- “The Judicial Dynamics of the French and European Fundamental Rights Revolution.”
Mellon Sawyer seminar on “The Dilemmas of Judicial Power,” Berkeley (October 2008).
-- “Is the Separation of Powers the Basis for the Legitimacy of an Internationalized
Judiciary?”
HiiL conference on "The Law of the Future," Peace Palace, the Hague (October 2008).
-- “The Dynamics of the Rights Revolution in the Courts of France and Europe.”
Sawyer Seminar on the Dilemmas of Judicial Power, Berkeley (February 2008).
-- “Judicial Transformations.”
Yale Law School Faculty Workshop (February 2008).
-- Co-convener, “Comparative Law and Culture: 2007 Meeting of the American Society
of Comparative Law,” Cornell Law School (November, 2007).
-- “The Judiciary at the Intersection of the French and European Legal Systems.”
NYU Legal History Colloquium (February, 2007).
-- Opening and Closing Comments.
“The Legitimacy of Highest Courts’ Rulings: Discussing Professor Lasser’s Judicial
Deliberations,” Erasmus University Rotterdam (January 12-13, 2007).
This conference was organized by the law faculties of the Erasmus University Rotterdam,
Antwerp University, and Leiden University to discuss my first book. It has resulted in a
book of 28 essays, entitled The Legitimacy of Highest Courts’ Rulings: “Judicial
Deliberations” and Beyond (The Hague: Asser Press, 2008). Judicial contributors include
W.J.M. Davids (Chief Justice of the Dutch Supreme Court), Guy Canivet (French
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Constitutional Council, former Chief Justice of the French Cour de cassation), Lech
Garlicki (Judge of the European Court of Human Rights), Wilhelmina Thomassen
(Justice of the Dutch Supreme Court, former Judge of the European Court of Human
Rights), Luc Huybrechts (Justice of the Belgian Cour de cassation), and Geert Corstens
(Justice and soon Chief Justice of the Dutch Supreme Court).
-- “Decoding Contemporary French Legal Debates.”
NYU School of Law Faculty Workshop Series (October, 2006).
-- “Les récentes modifications du processus de décision à la Cour de cassation : le regard
bienveillant, mais inquiet, d’un comparatiste nord-américain.”
French Cour de cassation (January, 2006).
-- “Research Methodology.”
Topics in Comparative Law Seminar, Yale Law School (November, 2005).
-- “Comparative Law as a Moving Target.”
Harvard European Law Association, Harvard Law School (October, 2005).
-- “Mixed Up Law.”
“Rethinking ‘Legal Transplants’ and ‘Mixed Jurisdictions’: When Civilian Legal
Reasoning Meets Constitutional Thought.” Sciences Po (July, 2005).
-- “Comparative Law in Motion.”
European Law Research Center, Harvard Law School (April, 2005).
-- “Methodological Failure.”
Current Issues in Comparative Law Seminar, Duke Law School (November, 2004).
-- “Comparative Misunderstandings.”
Comparative Law Methodologies Conference, University of Paris-I (July, 2004).
-- “Apples and Oranges: Similarity and Difference between the Discourses of the
American Supreme Court, the French Cour de cassation and the European Court of
Justice.”
European University Institute, Florence (March, 2003).
-- “Anticipating Three Models of Judicial Control, Debate and Legitimacy: The European
Court of Justice, the Cour de cassation and the United States Supreme Court.”
Jean Monnet Center, NYU School of Law (December, 2002).
-- “The Sliding Scales.”
College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law (September, 2002).
-- “L’Américanisation du discours judiciaire français.”
Université de Montréal, (January, 2002).
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-- “Problématiques judiciaires: la Cour de cassation, the United States Supreme Court et
la Cour de Justice des Communautés Européennes.”
McGill University (January, 2002).
--“Is the European Court of Justice a French Court?”
The Common Core of European Private Law, University of Trento, Italy (July, 2001).
-- “American Comparative Law at an Impasse.”
Cornell Law School Faculty Workshop (March, 2001).
-- “A Matter of Understanding.”
“Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions; A Conference at the
Millennium.” University of Cambridge, UK (July, 2000).
-- “Le discours judiciaire contemporain.”
Université de Lille 2, Faculté des Sciences juridiques et sociales, Centre René Demogue
(June, 2000).
-- “L’écriture du droit par le juge.”
“L’Américanisation du droit: Mythes ou réalités?” (Paris, June, 2000).
--“Roscoe Pound, American Legal Realism and American Comparative Law.”
Northwestern University School of Law (March, 2000).
-- “Welcome Address,” and “Comparative Law as Exposing the Foreign System’s
Internal Critique.”
University of Utah Law Review Symposium, “New Approaches to Comparative Law”
(October, 1996).
--“The Myths of the French Legal System.”
European Law Research Center, Harvard Law School (March, 1995).
-- “Auto-portraits judiciaires: le discours interne de la Cour de Cassation.”
French Cour de Cassation (June, 1994).
-- “Critique du discours du ‘policy’ dans le champs judiciaire.”
Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (November, 1993).
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