Guido Calabresi (born October 18, 1932) is an Italian-born American jurist who serves as asenior circuit judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a former Dean ofYale Law School, where he has been a professor since 1959. Calabresi is considered, along withRonald Coase andRichard Posner, a founder of the field oflaw and economics.

Calabresi was born in 1932 inMilan, Italy. His father, Massimo Calabresi (1903–1988), was acardiologist,^[1] and his mother, Bianca Maria Finzi-Contini Calabresi (1902–1982), was a scholar of European literature. Calabresi's parents were active in the resistance againstItalian fascism and eventually fled Italy, immigrating to theUnited States in 1939. The family settled inNew Haven, Connecticut, and becamenaturalized American citizens in 1948. Guido's older brother Paul Calabresi (1930–2003) was a prominent medical and pharmacological researcher of cancer and oncology. Calabresi's mother descends from an Italian-Jewish family.^[2][3] He describes himself as a "practicing Catholic" who believes in God.^[2]

Calabresi graduated fromYale College in 1953 with aBachelor of Science,summa cum laude, ineconomics. He was awarded aRhodes Scholarship and spent two years atMagdalen College, Oxford, receiving aBachelor of Arts degree withfirst-class honours in 1955 (laterpromoted per tradition to Master of Arts). He then attendedYale Law School, where he was a notes editor for theYale Law Journal. He graduated in 1958 ranked first in his class with aBachelor of Laws,magna cum laude.

Following graduation from law school, Calabresi served as alaw clerk forUnited States Supreme Court Associate JusticeHugo Black from 1958 to 1959.^[2]

Calabresi had been offered a full professorship at theUniversity of Chicago Law School in 1960.^[4] However, he joined the faculty of theYale Law School upon completion of his Supreme Court clerkship, becoming the youngest ever full professor at Yale Law, and was Dean from 1985 to 1994. He now isSterlingProfessor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale.

Calabresi is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association and from 1971 to 1975 served astown selectman forWoodbridge, Connecticut.^[5][2]

Calabresi is, along withRonald Coase, a founder oflaw and economics. His pioneering contributions to the field include the application of economic reasoning totort law, and a legal interpretation of theCoase theorem. Under Calabresi's intellectual and administrative leadership, Yale Law School became a leading center for legal scholarship imbued with economics and other social sciences. Calabresi has been awarded more than forty honorary degrees from universities across the world. He is a member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[6]

Calabresi's former students include Supreme Court JusticesSamuel Alito,Clarence Thomas andSonia Sotomayor, former United States Attorney GeneralMichael Mukasey, feminist legal scholar and law professor at the Universities ofMichigan andChicagoCatharine MacKinnon, former White House CounselGregory Craig, legal scholarPhilip Bobbitt,^[2] former SenatorJohn Danforth,Harvard Law School professorRichard H. Fallon Jr., civil and human rights legal scholarKenji Yoshino, torts scholarKenneth Abraham, feminist international attorneyAnn Olivarius, and torts scholarCatherine Sharkey.^[7] Calabresi, alone among Yale Law School faculty members, supported Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court.

On February 9, 1994, PresidentBill Clinton nominated Calabresi as a United States Circuit Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by JudgeThomas Joseph Meskill. He was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on July 18, 1994. He received his commission on July 21, 1994^[8] and entered duty on September 16, 1994. Calabresi assumedsenior status on July 21, 2009.^[8]

President Clinton is a 1973 graduate of the Yale Law School, although he never had Calabresi as a professor.

In 1985, Guido was awarded theLaetare Medal by theUniversity of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award forAmerican Catholics.^[9]

In 1992,Princeton University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Laws.^[10]

In 2006, Yale created the Guido Calabresi Professorship of Law, withKenji Yoshino serving as the inaugural professor of the endowed chair.Daniel Markovits is the current holder of the chair.

Calabresi is an Honorary Editor of the University of Bologna Law Review, a general student-edited law journal published by the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Bologna.^[11]

Calabresi is the author of four books and over 100 articles on law and related subjects.

• Elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1972^[12]
• Honorary degree,University of Pavia, 1987
• Elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society, 1997^[13]
• Honoris causa degree in Law,University of Brescia, 21 January 2013^[14][15]
• Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award, American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, 2015^[16]

• 1961, "Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts,"Yale Law Journal.
• 1970.The Costs of Accidents: A Legal and Economic Analysis.Yale University Press.
• 1972 (withDouglas Melamed), "Property Rules, Liability Rules and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral,"Harvard Law Review. (Very often cited.)
• 1982 "A Common Law For The Age of Statutes," (Harvard University Press).
• 1978 (with Philip Bobbit)"Tragic Choices. The conflicts society confronts in the allocation of tragically scarce resources." (WW Norton and Company New York, NY)
• 2016 "The Future of Law & Economics: Essays in Reform and Recollection" Tragic Choices. The conflicts society confronts in the allocation of tragically scarce resources."Yale University Press.

• Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 137 F.3d 109 (2nd Cir. 1998).
• Arar v. Ashcroft (2nd Cir. 2009), dissenting.
• United States v. Calvin Weaver, 18-1697 (2nd Cir. 2021). In a case regarding an unwarranted police search of a Black man walking by, Calabresi was one of three dissenters who argued that the search violated the 4th amendment. The other two dissenters wereRosemary Pooler andDenny Chin. Calabresi explained that "The majority begins its opinion by saying that this is an ordinary case of an ordinary police search. That, unfortunately, is all too true. But though ordinary, and very common, the facts of this case, and the fact that a strong majority made up of thoughtful judges comes out as it does, demonstrates beyond peradventure why this area of the law is so disastrous."^[17]
• Mujo v. Jani-King International, Inc., 20-111 (2nd Cir. 2021). Calabresi dissented from a ruling that permitted a corporation to require employees to sign a contract giving the corporation power to take part of their salary despite Connecticut's minimum wage laws.^[18]

Calabresi married Anne Gordon Audubon Tyler, a social anthropologist, freelance writer, social activist, philanthropist and arts patron. Both received their primary education at theFoote School in New Haven, graduating in 1946 and 1948, respectively. Calabresi would continue on to receive his secondary education fromHopkins School, graduating in 1949.

They reside inWoodbridge, Connecticut, and have three children. Anne Gordon Audubon Calabresi (Anne Calabresi Oldshue), a psychiatrist, graduated cum laude fromYale, attended medical school atCase Western Reserve University and completed residency atHarvard.^[19] Massimo Franklin Tyler ("M.F.T.") Calabresi, a journalist withTime magazine, also graduated fromYale.^[20] Bianca Finzi-Contini Calabresi attendedYale as well, graduating summa cum laude, and has a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature fromColumbia.^[21] Calabresi's nephew,Steven G. Calabresi, is a Constitutional Law professor atNorthwestern University and a co-founder of theFederalist Society.

Calabresi and his wife own an olive grove inFlorence,Italy, where they produce olive oil each year. He is a fan ofInter Milan and theNew York Yankees.^[2]

• List of Jewish American jurists
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 1)

• Guido Calabresi at theBiographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of theFederal Judicial Center.

• Calabresi'sprofile atYale Law School.

• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1932 births
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