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Claire Finkelstein
Professor of Law and Philosophy

Claire Finkelstein
Professor of Law and Philosophy

Tel: 215.898.5798
Fax: 215.573.2025
Email: cfinkels@law.upenn.edu

Expertise

  • Contracts
  • Criminal Law
  • Legal Philosophy
  • Moral and Political Philosophy

Bio

Claire Finkelstein is a leading scholar writing at the intersection of philosophy and law. [More]

Claire Finkelstein is a leading scholar writing at the intersection of philosophy and law. She has published extensively in the areas of criminal law theory, as well as in moral and political philosophy, philosophy of law, and rational choice theory. One of her distinctive contributions is bringing philosophical rational choice theory to bear on legal theory. In addition to her primary appointment in the Law School, she holds a secondary appointment in the Philosophy Department. During the Spring semester, 2008, Finkelstein will be a fellow at the American Academy of Berlin. She has previously held fellowships at the Princeton Center for Human Values, the Center for Social and Political Theory at the Australian National University, and the Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée (Paris), and was a recipient of Olin fellowships to further her dissertation research. She is the editor of a collection of essays entitled Hobbes on Law (Ashgate Publishing, 2005), and is presently working on a book, Hobbes’ Legal Theory.

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Representative Professional Positions

Penn Law - Professor of Law and Philosophy (2001 -); Visiting Professor (2000-01)

University of California, Berkeley - Professor of Law (1999-2000); Acting Professor of Law (1995-99)

Visits and Fellowships - American Academy in Berlin (2008); Harsanyi Fellow, Center for Social and Political Philosophy, Research School for the Social Sciences, Australian National U. (2000); Princeton Center for Human Values, Princeton (1998-99)

Representative Publications

HOBBES’ LEGAL THEORY (work-in-progress).

Contrived Defenses and Deterrent Threats: Two Facets of One Problem (co-authored with Leo Katz), 5 OHIO. J. CRIM. L. 479 (2008).
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Acting on an Intention, in REASON, INTENTION AND MORALITY (Gijs Van Donselaar & Bruno Verbeek eds., Ashgate Publishing, 2008).
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A Contractarian Argument Against the Death Penalty, 81 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1283 (2006).
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Hobbes and the Internal Point of View, 75 FORDHAM L. REV. 1211 (2006).
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Report for British Law Commission on American Murder Law, Completed September, 2005 (available upon request), published in British Law Commission CP177 (December 20, 2005).
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Merger and Felony Murder, in DEFINING CRIMES: ESSAYS ON THE CRIMINAL LAW’S “SPECIAL PORT” (Antony Duff & Stuart Green eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2005).
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HOBBES ON LAW, editor of volume for Ashgate Publishing (2005).

Responsibility for Unintended Consequences, 2 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 579 (2005).
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A Contractarian Approach to Punishment, BLACKWELL SERIES ON PHILOSOPHY OF LAW (Martin Golding & William Edmundson eds., 2004).
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Legal Theory and the Rational Actor, in OXFORD HANDBOOK OF RATIONALITY (Al Mele ed., Oxford Univ. Press, 2003).
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Is Risk a Harm?, 151 U. PA. L. REV. 963 (2003).
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Excuses and Dispositions in Criminal Law, 6 BUFF. CRIM. L. REV. 317 (2002).
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Death and Retribution, CRIM. JUST. ETHICS (2002).
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Crime: Definition, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CRIME AND JUSTICE (Macmillan Reference Series 2002).
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Involuntary Crimes, Voluntarily Committed in CRIMINAL LAW THEORY: DOCTORINES OF THE GENERAL PART (Stephen Shute & A.P. Simester eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2002).
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A Puzzle About Hobbes on Self-Defense, 82 PACIFIC PHIL. Q. 332 (2001).
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Two Men on a Plank, 7 LEGAL THEORY 279 (2001).
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Rational Temptation, in PRACTICAL RATIONALITY AND PREFERENCE: ESSAYS FOR DAVID GAUTHIER (Christopher W. Morris & Arthur Ripstein eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2001).
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The Inefficiency of Mens Rea, 88 CAL. L. REV. 895 (2000).
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When the Rule Swallows the Exception, in RULES AND REASONING: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF FREDERICK SCHAUER (Hart Publishing Company 1999; reprinted in 19 QUINN. L. REV. 505 2000).
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Positivism and the Notion of an Offense, 88 CAL. L. REV. 335 (2000).
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Threats and Pre-emptive Practices, 5 LEGAL THEORY 311 (1999).
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On the Obligation of the State to Extend a Right of Self-Defense to its Citizens, 147 U. PA. L. REV. 1361 (1999).
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For additional publications, please consult
Current & Recent Research

Current Working Papers

Contracts Under Coercion: Should You Keep a Contract with a Robber?

Hobbesian Legal Reasoning

Constrained Maximization and Risk

Punishment as Contract

 
Claire Finkelstein

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D. (philosophy) - University of Pittsburgh - '96
  • J.D. - Yale - '93
  • Maitrise - University of Paris, Sorbonne - '87
  • B.A. - Harvard - '86

Courses Taught

  • Criminal Law
  • Contracts
  • Introduction to Jurisprudence
  • Rationality, Norms and the Law
  • Philosophy of Criminal Law
  • Theory of Rights
  • Theory of Action
  • Contractarianism and the Law

Research Areas

  • Criminal Law
  • Legal Philosophy
  • Contracts
  • Moral Philosophy
  • Political Philosophy
  • Rational Choice Theory