Justice Stephen Breyer ’64 has been named the Byrne Professor of Administrative Regulation and Method at Harvard Regulation Faculty, helpful promptly. He joins a group of school who have turn into HLS college users following illustrious legal professions in the occupation and deliver deep skills and excellence to the shared operate of this local community.
The appointment also marks a homecoming for Justice Breyer, who each attended and taught at Harvard Regulation Faculty. The Byrne chair, which he will now keep along with Professor Todd Rakoff ’75, was formerly held by Justice Felix Frankfurter LL.B. 1906 from 1924 until eventually his appointment to the Supreme Court docket in 1939.
“Justice Breyer is a historic jurist and a planet-course legal scholar who also has a distinguished heritage as a member of this faculty,” explained John F. Manning ’85, the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law. “I am thrilled to welcome him property to Harvard Law College. His brilliance, experience, collegiality, openness, and intellectual inquisitiveness will deeply enrich our community and progress our mission of instructing, scholarship, and services.”
Justice Breyer will instruct seminars and reading groups, keep on to write books and produce scholarship, and participate in the mental lifetime of the university and in the broader Harvard community.
Justice Breyer reported: “I am quite happy to return to Harvard to educate there and to produce. Amongst other matters, I will very likely attempt to demonstrate why I consider it vital that the next generations of all those linked with the regulation have interaction in perform, and get techniques to law, that assistance the fantastic American constitutional experiment perform efficiently for the American folks.”
College associates from throughout Harvard Legislation School expressed deep enthusiasm about his joining the faculty.
“From his groundbreaking operate on deregulation to his ongoing writings about judicial approach, Justice Breyer has been one of the most influential contributors to American law and policy for decades,” said Martha Minow, the 300th Anniversary College Professor and former dean of Harvard Regulation Faculty. “As an interlocutor, Justice Breyer is totally participating, candid, and unpretentious irrespective of whether with colleagues or pupils,” Minow extra. “He enjoys thoughts and he loves debating them, which — with his knowledge and ordeals — helps make him an in particular wonderful applicant to serve as our colleague.”
Cass Sunstein ’78, the Robert Walmsley College Professor, praised Justice Breyer’s pathbreaking scholarship in administrative regulation. “Justice Breyer is in the highest ranks of the major figures in administrative regulation,” Sunstein mentioned. “More than any person, Breyer has injected regulatory plan into administrative legislation, and shown that the two must be researched in tandem.” Sunstein included that Breyer “is also a great colleague. He is a generous critic, entire of constructive tips he combines pure academic instincts with functional expertise, which qualified prospects to some unique, and uniquely valuable, perspectives on other people’s projects.”
Andrew Crespo ’08, who clerked for Justice Breyer and is the Morris Wasserstein Community Desire Professor of Regulation, observed: “Clerking for him felt substantially like a year-very long seminar — a lot more an personal educational discussion than a work. Acquiring him share a version of that working experience with some of our students will enrich them immeasurably. And, for all of us on the school, it will be superb to welcome him house.”
Breyer acquired his A.B. magna cum laude in philosophy from Stanford University. As a Marshall Scholar, he been given a B.A. from Magdalen Higher education at Oxford College with 1st course honors. Breyer then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law College and was an content articles editor on the Harvard Regulation Review. Subsequent his graduation in 1964, he served as a legislation clerk to U.S. Supreme Court docket Justice Arthur Goldberg.
Breyer served on the Harvard Legislation University faculty from 1967 to 1980 and held a joint appointment at the Kennedy College of Govt from 1977 to 1980. Breyer also held various public company positions, serving as specific assistant to the assistant U.S. legal professional normal for antitrust (1965–1967), assistant distinctive prosecutor of the Watergate Particular Prosecution Power (1973), unique counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (1974–1975), and main counsel of that committee (1979–1980).
In 1980, President Carter appointed Breyer to the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the To start with Circuit, on which he served from 1980 to 1994. He was main judge from 1990 to 1994. For the duration of his time on the Very first Circuit, Breyer also served as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Fee from 1985 to 1989. In 1994, President Clinton nominated Choose Breyer as an associate justice of the Supreme Courtroom, and he took his seat August 3, 1994.
Justice Breyer has written extensively on large-ranging subjects including administrative and regulatory coverage, comparative constitutional law, and statutory and constitutional interpretation. His publications include things like: “The Authority of the Court docket and the Peril of Politics” (2021) “The Court docket and the Environment: American Legislation and the New World-wide Realities” (2015) “Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View” (2010) “Active Liberty: Deciphering Our Democratic Constitution” (2005) “Breaking the Vicious Circle: Towards Effective Danger Regulation” (1994) “Regulation and Its Reform” (1984) and “Energy Regulation by the Federal Electrical power Commission” (1974) (with Paul W. MacAvoy). He also has dozens of regulation assessment publications throughout a vast vary of topic matter places.
Breyer was born in 1938 in San Francisco, the son of Anne and Irving Breyer. His mother’s perform targeted on general public services and his father was authorized counsel for the San Francisco Board of Instruction for 40 a long time. Breyer was an Eagle Scout. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve for 8 years, which includes 6 months on active duty all through faculty.
