Skip Navigation
Site Search

SEARCH  |  ADVANCED  |  A-Z

ABOUT PENN LAW   |   PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS   |   ACADEMICS   |   FACULTY   |   CROSS-DISCIPLINARY FOCUS   |   INTERNATIONAL   |   DEPARTMENTS & SERVICES   |   EVENTS   |   NEWSROOM

William Ewald
Professor of Law and Philosophy

William Ewald
Professor of Law and Philosophy

Tel: 215.898.9135
Fax: 215.573.2025
Email: wewald@law.upenn.edu

Expertise

  • Comparative Law
  • International Law
  • Legal History
  • Philosophy of Law

Bio

William Ewald is an internationally recognized scholar in legal philosophy and comparative law. [More]

William Ewald is an internationally recognized scholar in legal philosophy and comparative law. He is the author of an often-cited article in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review on the philosophical foundations of comparative law, “What Was it Like to Try a Rat?” and is currently at work on a book, The Style of American Law, that examines, from a comparative perspective, the distinctive character of American law. This work has led him to write on the legal philosophy of James Wilson, the first professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. He also works in the philosophy of mathematics and is the editor of a standard source-book in philosophy of mathematics, From Kant to Hilbert (Oxford, 1996). He received an award from the John Templeton Foundation to pursue research in the foundations of mathematics.

[Hide]

Representative Professional Positions

The Queen's College, Oxford - Junior Research Fellow (1982-85, 1987-88)

Harvard College - Teaching Fellow (1979-82)

Penn Law - Professor of Law (1991- )

Istituto Universitario Europeo, Florence - Jean Monnet Fellow (1989-90)

Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Gottingen (1985-87)

The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton - Member (1988-89); Visitor (1997)

Representative Publications

THE STYLE OF AMERICAN LAW (forthcoming).

James Wilson and the Drafting of the Constitution, 10 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 901 (2008).
[View Document]

The Protestant Revolutions and Western Law, 22 CONST. COMMENT. 181 (2005) (reviewing HAROLD J. BERMAN, LAW AND REVOLUTION II: THE IMPACT OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATIONS ON THE WESTERN LEGAL TRADITION (2003)).
[View Document]

The Search for Mathematical Roots, 40 BULL. AM. MATHEMATICAL SOC’Y 125 (2005).

The Conceptual Jurisprudence of the German Constitution, 21 CONST. COMMENT. 591 (2004) (reviewing ROBERT ALEXY, A THEORY OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (2002)).
[View Document]

FROM KANT TO HILBERT: A SOURCE BOOK IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS (2 vol., Oxford University Press 1996).

Comparative Jurisprudence: What Was it Like to Try a Rat?, 1995 U. PA. L. REV. 1889 (1995).

Unger' s Philosophy: A Critical Legal Study, 1988 YALE L.J. 665.

HILBERT ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCE (Six volumes of David Hilbert’s unpublished writings, with editorial commentary. Co-edited with Michael Hallett, Ulrich Majer, and Wilfried Sieg; in course of publication by Springer Verlag. Volume One was published in 2005; Volumes Three and Four forthcoming 2009.)

For additional publications, please consult
Current & Recent Research

 
William Ewald

Curriculum Vitae

Related Links

Education

  • J.D. - Harvard - '81
  • D.Phil. (philosphy & math.) - Oxford - '78
  • A.M. (mathematics) - Harvard - '76
  • B.A. - Harvard - '76

Courses Taught

  • Comparative Law
  • Public International Law
  • Philosophy of Law
  • Kant's Legal Theory
  • Foundations of the American Legal System

Research Areas

  • Comparative Law
  • Legal Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Mathematics

View News Items