Richard A. Posner, the most influential legal scholar of all time, dies at 87
Richard A. Posner has died
Richard A. Posner, who joined the University of Chicago Law School in 1969 and spent 36 years on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, died November 10 at 87. He authored some 3,300 opinions, hundreds of articles, and dozens of books, including the seminal 1973 work The Economic Analysis of Law. Widely regarded as the most influential legal scholar ever, he was a fierce questioner and champion of legal pragmatism.
There has never been a legal scholar quite as prolific, influential, and endlessly curious as Dick Posner—he was a giant whose influence on our legal system, the field of law and economics, and on our law school cannot be overstated.
- gregw2
Posner had a significant influence on the Microsoft antitrust trial back in 1999-2001, both his legal thinking before the trial and being appointed by the judge in that trial to serve (ultimately unsuccessfully) as a mediator amidst the trial.
- xhevahir
Posner did more than anyone else to consign law to a branch of economics, specifically economics as understood by the Chicago School.
- throwaway81523
Age 87. I had to read some stuff by him a long time ago.