Guido Calabresi

Guido Calabresi (born October 18, 1932) is an Italian-born American jurist who serves as a senior circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a former Dean of Yale Law School, where he has been a professor since 1959. Calabresi is considered, along with Ronald Coase and Richard Posner, a founder of the field of law and economics.

Early life and education

Calabresi was born in 1932 in Milan, Italy. His father, Massimo Calabresi (1903–1988), was a cardiologist,^[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 against Italian fascism and eventually fled Italy, immigrating to the United States in 1939. The family settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and became naturalized 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 from

Following graduation from law school, Calabresi served as a law clerk for United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Hugo Black from 1958 to 1959.^[2]

Legal career

Calabresi had been offered a full professorship at the

Calabresi is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association and from 1971 to 1975 served as

Yale, in 2006, created the Guido Calabresi Professorship of Law, with Kenji 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.^[10]

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

Honors

• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1972^[11]
• Honorary degree, University of Pavia, 1987
• Elected to the American Philosophical Society, 1997^[12]
• Honoris causa degree in Law, University of Brescia, 21 January 2013^[13][14]
• Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award, American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, 2015 ^[15]

Major works

• 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 (with Douglas 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.

Notable decisions

• 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 were
  Rosemary Pooler and Denny 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."^[16]
• 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.[17]

Personal life

Calabresi married Anne Gordon Audubon Tyler, a social anthropologist, freelance writer, social activist, philanthropist and arts patron. Both received their primary education at the

Calabresi and his wife own an olive grove in Florence, Italy, where they produce olive oil each year. He is a fan of Inter Milan and the New York Yankees.^[2]

See also

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

References