Richard Epstein | |
|---|---|
 Epstein in 2018 | |
| Born | (1943-04-17)April 17, 1943 (age 82) New York City, U.S. |
| Spouse | Eileen |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Paul Reiser (cousin) |
| Awards | Bradley Prize (2011) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) Oriel College, Oxford (BA) Yale University (LLB) |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Constitutional law Property law |
| Institutions | University of Southern California University of Chicago MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics New York University |
| Main interests | Takings clause,Roman law |
| Notable works | Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (1985) |
| Influenced | Randy Barnett |
Richard Allen Epstein (born April 17, 1943) is an American legal scholar known for his writings ontorts,contracts,property rights,law and economics,classical liberalism, andlibertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law atNew York University and the director of the Classical Liberal Institute. He also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute,[1] as the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at theHoover Institution, and as a senior lecturer and the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of LawEmeritus at theUniversity of Chicago.[2]
According toJames W. Ely Jr., Epstein's writings have had a "pervasive influence on American legal thought."[3] In 2000, a study published inThe Journal of Legal Studies identified Epstein as the 12th-most cited legal scholar of the 20th century; in 2008, he was chosen in a poll byLegal Affairs as one of the most influential modern legal thinkers. A study of legal publications between 2009 and 2013 found Epstein to be the third-most frequently cited American legal scholar during that period, behind onlyCass Sunstein andErwin Chemerinsky. In a 2021 examination byFred R. Shapiro, Epstein was the fifth most-cited legal scholar of all time.[4]
Epstein was born on April 17, 1943, inBrooklyn, New York. His grandparents wereAshkenazi Jews who immigrated to the United States fromRussia andAustria in the early 20th century. Epstein's father, Bernard Epstein (1908–1978), was aradiologist, and his mother, Catherine Epstein (née Reiser; 1908–2004), managed his father's medical office.[5] He has two sisters. He attended elementary school at P.S. 161, a school that is now one of theSuccess Academy Charter Schools.[6] Epstein and his family lived in Brooklyn until 1954, when his father began working at theLong Island Jewish Medical Center and their family moved toGreat Neck, Long Island.[6]
Epstein attendedColumbia University as an undergraduate in the early 1960s. He had wide-ranging academic interests and did not wish to select a singlemajor, obtaining special permission from the university to pursue a self-selected program of study acrosssociology,philosophy, andmathematics. He graduated with aB.A.,summa cum laude, in 1964.[7]
Epstein earned a Kellett Fellowship at Columbia which allowed him to spend two years in England studyingjurisprudence atOriel College. He received a B.A. withfirst-class honours in 1966, and then returned to the United States to attendYale Law School. He graduated in 1968 with aLL.B.,cum laude.[citation needed]
After graduating from law school, Epstein became an assistant professor at theGould School of Law of theUniversity of Southern California (USC). He taught at USC for four years before moving to theUniversity of Chicago Law School in 1972. Epstein taught at Chicago for 38 years, eventually holding the title of James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law. Epstein formally retired from Chicago in 2010, but quickly came out of retirement to join the faculty of theNew York University School of Law as its inauguralLaurence A. Tisch Professor of Law. He remains a professor emeritus and senior lecturer at Chicago, occasionally teaching courses there. In 2013, NYU Law established a new academic research center, the Classical Liberal Institute, and named Epstein its inaugural director.[8]
Since 2001, Epstein has served as the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at theHoover Institution, a prominent American public policy think tank atStanford University. He has served in many academic and public organizations and has received a number of awards. In 1983, he was made a senior fellow at the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at theUniversity of Chicago Medical School, and, in 1985, he was inducted into theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[9] He was editor of theJournal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of theJournal of Law and Economics from 1991 to 2001. In 2003, Epstein received an honoraryLL.D. degree from theUniversity of Ghent, and in 2018 he received an honorary doctorate in law from theUniversity of Siegen.[10] In 2005, theCollege of William & Mary awarded him theBrigham–Kanner Property Rights Prize for his contributions to the field ofproperty rights.[11] In 2011, he was awarded aBradley Prize by the Bradley Foundation.[12]
Epstein became known in the American legal community in 1985 withHarvard University Press's publication of his bookTakings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain. In the book, Epstein argued that the "Takings Clause" of theFifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which reads, "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation", and is traditionally viewed as a limit on the governmental power ofeminent domain—gives constitutional protection to citizens' economic rights,[3] and so requires the government to be regarded the same as any other private entity in a property dispute. The argument was controversial and sparked a great deal of debate on the interpretation of the takings clause after the book's publication. DuringClarence Thomas'sSupreme Court Justice confirmation hearings in 1991, then-SenatorJoe Biden, "in a dramatic movement", held the book up and "repeatedly interrogated" Thomas about his position on the book's thesis.[3] The book served as a focal point in the argument about the government's ability to control private property.[13] It has also influenced how some courts view property rights[14] and been cited by theU.S. Supreme Court four times, including in the 1992 caseLucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council.[13]
At the height of theHIV pandemic in 1988, Epstein argued that companies ought to be able to discriminate against "AIDS carriers" and that anti-discrimination laws were unfair to employers. In place of such laws, Epstein argued that "AIDS carriers" ought to have their health insurance premiums subsidized via taxation so as to "discipline the behavior of government and interests groups, here by requiring citizens to make choices about how much they individually are prepared to pay to subsidize AIDS carriers." Furthermore, he argued that "[t]here is no reason to suppose that any public benefit obtained from having employers and their insurers care for AIDS victims will be at some level that matches the additional costs that are imposed." Instead, Epstein proposed that employers have the right to refuse to hire suspected "AIDS carriers".[15]
Epstein is an advocate of minimal legal regulation. In his 1995 bookSimple Rules for a Complex World, he consolidates much of his previous work and argues that simple rules work best because complexities create excessive costs. Complexity comes from attempting to do justice in individual cases. Complex rules are justifiable, however, if they can be opted out of. Drawing onGary Becker, he argues that theCivil Rights Act and otheranti-discrimination legislation ought to be repealed. Consistent with the principles ofclassical liberalism, he believes that the federal regulation onsame-sex marriage, theDefense of Marriage Act, should be repealed,[16] stating:
Epstein has criticized the Supreme Court ruling inObergefell v. Hodges.[17][18] In 2007, he defended the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies against the cheaper, generic production of AIDS drugs, writing that "disregarding property rights in the name of human rights reduces human welfare around the globe".[19]
In 2014, Epstein argued against reparations for African Americans in a piece published on the Hoover Institution's website.[20]
Contributing to the anthologyOur American Story (2019), Epstein addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative. Taking a decidedly skeptical approach, Epstein concluded that no new national narrative can be achieved "unless we engage in what I call American minimalism—a conscious reduction of the issues that we think are truly best handled as a nation and not better address by smaller subnational groups: states, local governments, and, most importantly, all sorts of small private organizations that are free to choose as they please in setting their own membership and mission."[21]
In March and April 2020, Epstein wrote several essays published by theHoover Institution giving a contrarian account of theCOVID-19 pandemic and warning against extensive containment and mitigativeUnited States responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he called an "overreaction".[22] In a piece published on March 16, he argued that the word "pandemic" is not to be used lightly and that the virus should be allowed to run its course, predicting there would be 500 U.S. deaths. In early June, the U.S. death total surpassed 100,000.[23] On March 24, when U.S. deaths had already exceeded 500, Epstein added a "Correction & Addendum", in which he changed his forecast to 5,000 deaths[24][25][26] without changing the underlying model that had led him to his first estimate.[27] On April 6, when the death toll had already far surpassed his earlier predictions, he again revised that figure, with the "Correction & Addendum" section declaring under the inaccurate date stamp "March 24, 2020" that the "original erroneous estimate of 5,000 dead in the US [was] a number 10 times smaller than [he had] intended to state", implying that both "500" and "5,000" had been misprints for "50,000".[28] After several news reports about Epstein's ever-increasing estimates, on April 21 an editor's note appeared on the website that explained the latest changes as an "editing error" and clarified that Epstein's original prediction had been 500 deaths.[29] In December 2020, when the death toll from COVID-19 in the U.S. was over 333,000,Politico named Epstein's predictions among "the most audacious, confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications about the year".[30]
Epstein compared COVID-19 to the2009 H1N1 pandemic and suggested that public health measures "are done better at the level of plants, hotels, restaurants, and schools than remotely by political leaders." He argued that "the response of the state governors to the coronavirus outbreak has become far more dangerous than the disease itself", writing that the number of deaths had been exaggerated.[31] His essays, containing a number of factual errors and misconceptions about theSARS-CoV-2 virus, circulated in conservative circles and in theTrump administration upon their publication.[32][33] In an article published on June 6, Epstein praisedRepublican-governed states like Florida for their crisis management, linking the then greater deaths inDemocratic-governed states to their "interventionist policies".[34]
In 2006, the American scholarJames W. Ely Jr. wrote: "It is a widely accepted premise that Professor Richard A. Epstein has exercised a pervasive influence on American legal thought."[3] In 2000, a study published inThe Journal of Legal Studies identified Epstein as the 12th-most cited legal scholar of the entire 20th century.[35] In 2008, he was chosen in a poll taken byLegal Affairs as one of the most influential legal thinkers of modern times.[36] A study of legal publications between 2009 and 2013 found Epstein to be the 3rd most frequently cited American legal scholar, behind onlyCass Sunstein andErwin Chemerinsky.[37]
Epstein has said that when voting, he chooses "anyone but the Big Two" who are "just two members of the same statist party fighting over whose friends will get favors".[38] He has votedLibertarian.[39] Epstein says he is "certainly aCalvin Coolidge fan; he made some mistakes, but he was a small-government guy".[39] Epstein served onThe Constitution Project's Guantanamo Task Force.[40][41][42]
In early 2015, Epstein commented on his relationship to the modern American political landscape, stating: "I'm in this very strange position: I'm not a conservative when it comes to religious values and so forth, but I do believe, in effect, in a strong foreign policy and a relatively small domestic government, but that's not the same thing as saying I believe in no government at all."[43] He has also been characterized as alibertarian conservative.[44][45] During a debate with Chris Preble in December 2016, Epstein identified himself as being a "libertarianhawk".[46]
In 2023, Epstein co-authored an op-ed in theWall Street Journal defending the2023 Israeli judicial reform.[47] Epstein has defended Israel's policies vis-à-vis Palestinians, callingallegations of apartheid a canard.[48]
In January 2025, Epstein argued againstbirthright citizenship in the United States, a right enshrined in theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[49]
Epstein's wife, Eileen W. Epstein, is a fundraiser and educator who serves on the board of trustees for the philanthropic organizationAmerican Jewish World Service. They have three children: two sons, Benjamin M. and Elliot, and a daughter, Melissa. Epstein is a first cousin of the comedian and actorPaul Reiser.[50]
Epstein has described himself as "a rather weak, non-practicingJew."[51]
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