Author Archive | Randy Barnett

I think Kaus has it right: It should also be noted that the controversy was kept alive not just by blogs, but by the refusal of a relatively liberal Democrat, Barney Frank, to sweep it under the rug in gentlemanly fashion. Even more, Frank’s calling Jordan on the spot while on the same panel was […]

Yesterday a reader sent me a copy of this satire on the Restatements that appeared in the 1994 volume of the Yale Law Journal (104 Yale L.J. 707) entitled, Restatement of Love by Gretchen Craft Rubin and Jamie G. Heller. Here is how it opens: Custom has long been the authority in matters of love. […]

I just started reading the March issue of Liberty. Unlike Reason, which is a libertarian magazine aimed at nonlibertarian readers, Liberty is primarily aimed at libertarian readers. As a result, you can read articles on subjects in Liberty that you can find no where else. For example, only here can you read articles about the […]

On his blog Freespace, Tim Sandefur raises a fundamental challenge to my skepticism of Restatements (which I recommend reading in full): What I mean is this: my college economics professor, Gary Wolfram, explained to us that the concept of spontaneous order teaches us that we should wait to see the order that arises from people’s […]

Yesterday I noted (here) the passing of E. Allan Farnsworth who, among his other accomplishments, was the reporter for the Restatement (Second) of Contracts. While I have some strong disagreements with it, I think that the Second Restatement is a masterpiece of neoclassical contract law, blending the best of “classical” formal rules with “neoclassical” qualifications. […]

Eugene: Have we set some sort of record for number of blog posts by VC bloggers in a single day? I count 18 posts by 6 of us so far (not including this one), with 11 by you alone. And it isn’t even an exam-grading-avoidance period!

The preeminant contracts scholar and Columbia law professor E. Allan Farnsworth died a week ago today. The Sunday New York Times has a nice obituary here. Another fine obituary here adds additional details. Allan Farnsworth was the reporter for the Restatement (Second) of Contracts and was the author of the most widely adopted contracts casebook, […]

I very much enjoyed my visits last week to Northwestern and the Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. In an earlier post, I inadvertently switched the times of my Duke and Wake Forest speeches and then posted a correction. As it turns out, because of a conflict with another speaker, later in the week […]

In my previous post, I gave the wrong information concerning my speeches at Wake Forest and Duke. I have now corrected it to read Wake Forest (2/10 @ noon) & Duke (2/10 @ 4:00pm). Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Todd’s post cause me to think about how I got into law teaching. The first time I went through the AALS job market as an assistant Cook County State’s Attorney I got no job offers. I did not even get any call backs. The next year, I took a leave of absence from the State’s […]

I am about to hit the road again for a series of speaking engagements. Mostly I will be speaking about “Medical Marijuana, the Commerce Clause, and Arguing in the Supreme Court.” As always, say hello if you are a VC reader. Here is my schedule for this week: THURSDAY (2/3): Northwestern University School of Law […]

Just watched the HBO Film Dirty War. As is to be expected with a BBC production, it is very well done. British actors are capable of conveying a sense of realism in their dramatic performances that is usually unmatched–at least in the productions that make it over here. Here is the description: In a post-9/11 […]

While it offers little if any substantive argument on behalf of libertarianism, this web page by Ken Schoolland and Lux Lucre provides an interesting graphical presentation of the libertarian position. For more information about the project of which this is a part click here. (Hat tip Brainwacker)

FWIW on Fox News Sunday yesterday, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard made his annual prediction: Michael McConnell to be nominated to succeed William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the United States. He further predicted no filibuster. Given Kristol’s sources, this sounds more like a trial balloon than misdirection.

(As if it was not ridiculous from the jump.) Matt Rustler of Stop the Bleating writes: No, no, no. You’re not Richard Belzer in your secret life. In your secret life you hawk Nexium, “The Healing Purple Pill,” under the alias, James Naughton. I was watching television last night when the latest Nexium advertisement, featuring […]