JAMES RUSSELL GORDLEY

History of European Law;
Comparative Private Law;
Contract Law;
Property Law

I received a B.A. from the University of Chicago, majoring in history (1967), an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago, majoring in finance (1968), and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1970). I was appointed Distinguished Professor of Legal History at Università Bocconi n 2014. I have taught at Tulane Law School since 2007 where I am W.R. Irby Distinguished Professor and hold a joint appointment. I taught at Berkely Law School from 1978-2007 where I was Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Jurisprudence. I am a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a membre titulaire, Académie internationale du droit comparé. I received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Comparative Law in 2022.

I am interested in the doctrinal problems of private law, present and past, and the way in which  they have been shaped by the interaction of law and philosophy.