Curriculum Vitae

Jedediah Purdy

Associate Professor of Law
Duke University School of Law
Towerview Road and Science Drive
Durham, NC 27708
Telephone: (919) 613-7077
E-mail: purdy@law.duke.edu

Education

J.D., Yale Law School, 2001
B.A., summa cum laude in Social Studies
Harvard College, 1997

Employment and Fellowships

Visitor, Harvard Law School, spring 2010 (anticipated)
Visiting Associate Professor, Yale Law School, 2008-09 (anticipated)
Assistant Professor of Law, Duke Law School, 2004-2007
Visiting Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School, Spring 2007
Fellow, Safra Center for Ethics, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2006-07
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School, 2004
Law Clerk, Hon. Pierre N. Leval, Second Circuit Court of Appeal, 2002-2003
Fellow, New America Foundation, 2001-2002
Summer Associate, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison, 2002
Summer Associate, Natural Resources Defense Council, 2000
Writing Fellow, The American Prospect, 1997-1998

Books

Aspects of Mastery: Property, Freedom, and the Legal Imagination (under contract, Yale University Press)
A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebellion and Tradition in the American Vision of Freedom (forthcoming 2009) (Knopf)
Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Life of American Democracy (editor) (2004), Yale University Press
Being America: Liberty, Commerce, and Violence in an American World (2003), Knopf
For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today (1999), Knopf

Academic Articles, Reviews, and Essays

"Climate Change and the Limits of the Possible," forthcoming in Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum.
"Presidential Language and the Constitutional Community," chapter in Law and Democracy in the Empire of Force (James B. White and H. Jefferson Powell, eds.) (forthcoming, U. Mich. Press)
“The Private-Law Origins of Sovereign Power: Trusteeship, Agency, and Wardship” (with Kimberly Fielding), forthcoming in Law & Contemporary Problems (2007)
“People as Resources: Recruitment and Reciprocity in the Freedom-Promoting Approach to Property,” 56 Duke Law Journal 1047 (2007)
“Property and Empire: Conquest, Expropriation, and the Law of Colonialism,” 75 George Washington Law Review 1701 (2007)
“The New Biopolitics: Demography, Autonomy, and Nationhood,” 2006 Brigham Young University Law Review 889 (2006)
“The Promise (and Limits) of Neuroeconomics,” 58 Alabama Law Review 1 (2006)
“Completing the Civilizing Argument” (Comment on Carol Rose’s 2005 Childress Lecture), 50 St. Louis University Law Review 735 (2006)
“The American Transformation of Waste Doctrine: A Pluralist Interpretation,” 91 Cornell Law Review 563 (2006)
“The Limits of Courage and Principle” (review of Michael Ignatieff’s The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror), 104 Michigan Law Review 1501 (2006)
“A Freedom-Promoting Approach to Property: A Revived Tradition for New Debates,” 72 University of Chicago Law Review1237 (2005).
“The Ethics of Empire, Again,” 93 California Law Review 1773 (2005)
“A World of Passions: How to Think About Globalization Now,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies (Summer 2004)
“Liberal Empire: Assessing the Arguments,” Ethics and International Affairs Vol. 17, No. 2 (2003); reprinted in Global Institutions and Responsibilities (Christian Barry and Thomas Pogge, eds.) (Blackwell Press 2005)
“The Values of the Market” (book review), Ethics and International Affairs Vol. 16, No. 2 (2002)

Courses

Climate Change and the Law, Duke Law School, 2007-08
Property and Constitutional Order, Harvard Law School, spring 2007
Property, Duke Law School, spring 2005 and 2006, fall 2007
Property and Constitutional Order, Duke Law School, fall 2005 and 2007
Environmental Ethics, Duke Law School Readings in Ethics, 2007-08
Worlds Without Law, Duke Law School Readings in Ethics, 2005-06
Law in an Unjust World, Duke Law School Readings in Ethics, 2004-05
Environmental Law: History, Politics, Culture, Yale Law School and School of Forestry, spring 2000
Environmental Politics and Policy, Century Foundation Summer Institute, Williams College, summer 1999

Lectures and Presentations

"Climate Change: Political Limits and Possibilities," Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum on Climate Change, Fall 2007
"Endogenous Preferences, Institutional Design, and Freedom," Duke Law Faculty Workshop, Fall 2007
“Contexts, Choices, and Values: Freedom and Institutional Design,” UC Hastings Law School, April 18, 2007.
“Some Chords of Freedom,” Conference on “Law and Democracy in the Empire of Force,” University of Michigan Law School, April 13, 2007
“Property and Empire: Rereading Johnson v. M”intosh, Harvard Law School History Colloquium, April 12, 2007
“American Freedoms: Presentation of a manuscript in progress,” New America Foundation, January 2007
“Private-Law Concepts in the Theory of Sovereignty,” University of North Carolina Law School, March 2006
“Reign of Witches? Constitutionalism and the Politics of Fear,” Yale Club of New York City, January 2006
“American Culture and World Politics,” SAIS Conference on Trans-Atlantic Relations, Austin, TX, November 2005
“People as Property: On Being a Resource and a Person,” faculty workshop, University of Georgia Law School, November 2005
Panelist, “The Future of the Supreme Court,” Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University, October 2005
Respondent, Carol Rose’s “Privatization – The Road to Democracy?” St. Louis University Law School, September 2005.
“Is There a Moral Center in America?” New America Foundation annual conference, Berkeley, CA, June 2005
“People as Resources, People as Ends: Recruitment and the Law of Property,” Future of Political Economy Seminar, United Nations Development Program, New York City, June 2005
“Why We Get the Politics We Get,” New America Foundation/Atlantic Monthly forum on “The Real State of the Union,” Washington, DC, February 2005
Panelist, “What the Election Meant,” Sarah Lawrence College, February 2005
Introducer and moderator, premiere of Gore Vidal’s On the March to the Sea, Reynolds Theater, Duke University, February 2005
Panelist, “What Will the Election Mean?” Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, October 2004
“Modern Values in Postmodern Conditions,” German Marshall Fund/Bertelsmann Foundation Conference on Trans-Atlantic Relations, Tremezzo, Italy, October 2004
“A Freedom-Oriented Approach to Property,” Future of Political Economy Working Group, Barnard College, Columbia University, October 2004
“Why America Must Not Fail (and How It Might),” American Studies Program, Bonn University, Bonn, Germany, June 2004
“Being New York,” keynote address, Biennale Bonn cultural festival, Bonn, Germany, June 2004
“The Social Evaluation of Technology: The Standpoint of Freedom,” Berkman Center on Internet and Society, Harvard University, May 2004
“Social Interventions into Human Nature: The Case of Property,” Future of Political Economy Working Group, Barnard College, Columbia University, March 2004
Comment, Noah Feldman’s “Nation-Building: Objectives,” Conference on Justice After War, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, New York, April 2004
“Being America: How U.S. Foreign Policy and Consumer Culture Affect Other Societies,” New America Foundation, Washington, D.C., March 2003
Panelist, “Is There a Trans-Atlantic Divide?” Aspen Institute, Berlin, Germany, November 2002
Panelist, “Where Is America Going?” Bucerius Law School and Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany, November 2002
Panelist, “Globalization and Justice,” American Public Health Association, Philadelphia, November 2002
“Why We Need Politics,” commencement address, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA, June 2001
“Irony and Politics,” Emory University Center on Ethics, February 2001.
“Burke, Tocqueville, Emerson, and Democracy,” Emory University Center on Ethics, February 2001

Essays and Reviews

"What Realignment Sounds Like," The Guardian (Jan. 30, 2008)
"Sweet Spot," The Guardian (Jan. 7, 2008)
"Will the Real Candidate Please Stand up?" The Guardian (Dec. 11, 2007)
"Intellectual Climate Change" The Guardian (Nov. 20, 2007)
"Drowning in Lawyers," The Guardian (Oct. 30, 2007)
"Can't Talk the Talk," The Guardian (Oct. 25, 2007)
“The New Open Society,” review of Yochai Benkler’s Wealth of Networks and Cass Sunstein’s Infotopia, The American Prospect, October 2006
“September 11, Five Years After,” Die Zeit, September 2006
“A Legacy of Wasted Chances,” The Charleston (WV) Gazette, September 2006
“The New Biopolitics,” Democracy, Summer 2006
“Democracy and Disaster,” Die Zeit, September 2005
“A Way in the World,” Duke Alumni Magazine, Spring 2005
“Neoliberalism at Home,” La Vanguardia, January 2005
“Where Do Progressives Go Now?” The Principles Project, January 2005
“Democrats After the Election,” Die Welt, November 2004
“American Eating, American Politics,” Die Zeit, October 2004
“Questions for President Bush” (contributor), New York Times op-ed page, October 8, 2004
“Democratic Conscience, Democratic Sense,” La Vanguardia, October 2004
“Kerry’s Dilemma,” La Vanguardia, October 2004
“A Vote for Kerry Is a Vote for the American Dream,” Charleston Gazette, October 2004
“Freedom’s Next Fight,” review of Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture, American Prospect, June 2004
“Suspicious Minds,” The Atlantic Monthly, February 2003
“The Young American,” Esquire, December 2002
“Civilization of Violence?” Die Zeit, August 2002
“The Pure Heart,” Die Zeit, February 2002
“The Way We Say Goodnight,” Shout, September 2001
“After Innocence,” Die Zeit, September 2001
“The Universal Nation,” Prospect (U.K.), October 2001
“Gary Condit’s Strong, Silent Act,” New York Times op-ed page, August 26, 2001
“Us and Them,” Die Zeit, August 2001
“So Sue Me,” review of Philip K. Howard’s Lost Art of Drawing the Line, New York Times Book Review, April 22, 2001
“Once Again, America Needs to Believe in Its Courts,” New York Times op-ed page, November 26, 2000
“America’s Crisis of Legitimacy,” Die Zeit, November 2000
“How to Go to the Polls Twice,” New York Times op-ed page, November 3, 2000
“Planet Bush, Planet Gore,” American Prospect, November 2000
“The Dilemma of Irony,” Die Zeit, August 2000
“The Politics of Adulthood,” New York Times op-ed page, August 9, 2000
“Shades of Green,” American Prospect, January 2000
“After Apathy,” American Prospect, December 1999
“The New Culture of Rural America,” American Prospect, December 1999
“A Holiday that Plays to Our Strengths,” New York Times op-ed page, November 25, 1999
“If Only Wishing Made It So,” American Prospect, May 1999
“From Purity to Politics,” American Prospect, January 1999
“The Rape of the Appalachians,” American Prospect, November 1998
“The Age of Irony,” American Prospect, July 1998
“Wendell Berry: An Appreciation,” Boston Book Review, July 1998
“Dolly and Madison,” American Prospect, May 1998
“The God of the Digerati,” American Prospect, March 1998
“The Chicago Acid Bath,” American Prospect, January 1998
“The Libertarian Conceit,” American Prospect, November 1997

Academic Honors

Hoopes Prize, Alexis de Tocqueville Prize, and prize for outstanding thesis in social sciences for Essays in Flesh and Bone: Montaigne
and Liberal Moral Consciousness, 1997
Junior Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard College, 1996
Harry S. Truman scholarship, 1996
Detur Prize (top 3% of first-year class, Harvard College), 1994

Professional Activities and Associations

Member, New York Bar
Contributing Editor, The American Prospect
Member, American Constitution Society Committee on Constitutional Change and Interpretation
Reviewer, Yale University Press
Editorial Advisory Board, Ethics and International Affairs

Media Appearances

Appeared on Morning Edition, The Connection, Talk of the Nation, The Diane Rehm Show, and as a commentator on Morning Edition, among others.
Profiled in New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Time, Salon, and Glamour, among others.
Books reviewed in New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, and Harper’s, among others.
Designated one of Esquire’s “Best and Brightest Young Americans” (2003) and a “hipster celebrity” by Harper’s (2006).