Amy Wax
Robert Mundheim Professor of Law

Amy Wax’s work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy as well as the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets. By bringing to bear her training in biomedical sciences and appellate practice as well as her interest in economic analysis, Wax has developed a uniquely insightful approach to problems in her areas of expertise.
Books
RACE, WRONGS, AND REMEDIES: GROUP JUSTICE IN THE 21ST CENTURY (Hoover Institution Press/Rowman and Littlefield, May 2009).
[Available Here]
Articles and Book Chapters
Pursuing Diversity: From Employment to Education, 2020 U. CHI. L. REV. ONLINE 94 (Oct. 30, 2020).
Trust Me, I’m an Expert: Scientific and Legal Expertise in Scalia’s Jurisprudence, in SCALIA'S CONSTITUTION: ESSAYS ON LAW AND EDUCATION 103 (Palgrave 2018).
Educating the Disadvantaged, NAT'L AFF., no. 35 (Spring 2018).
Are We Free to Discuss America’s Real Problems, 47 IMPRIMUS (Jan. 2018)
Sex without Desire, THE AM. CONSERVATIVE (Nov/Dec 2017) at 13.
Low Skill Immigration: A Case for Restriction, 1:4 AM. AFF. (Winter 2017) (with Jason Richwine).
Presumed Innocent No More (review of K.C. Johnson & Stuart Taylor, The Rape Frenzy on Campus), 30 ACAD. QUESTIONS 352 (Sept. 2017) (with Isaac Cohen).
Educating the Disadvantaged: Two Models, 40 HARV. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 687 (Fall 2017).
The Dead End of Disparate Impact: Recent Developments, in TITLE VII OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT AFTER 50 YEARS: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 67TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON LABOR (Anne Marie Lofaso & Samuel Estreicher eds., Lexis 2016).
On Not Dreaming of Affirmative Action, 17 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 757 (2015).
Diverging Destinies Redux, 112 MICH. L. REV. 925 (2014).
The Dead End of "Disparate Impact," 12 NAT'L AFF. 53 (2012).
An Incomplete View of Adolescence, 28 ISSUES IN SCI. & TECH. 8 (2012).
Supply Side or Discrimination? Assessing the Role of Unconscious Bias, 83 TEMP. L. REV. 877 (2011).
Disparate Impact Realism, 53 WM. & MARY L. REV. 621 (2011).
Income Integration at School, 169 POL'Y REV. 49-62 (Oct/Nov. 2011)
The Discriminating Mind: Define It, Prove It, 40 U. CONN. L. REV. 979 (2008).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
The Third Parent Problem: Obergefell and Parent-Child Relations, NAT'L AFF. (Forthcoming Winter 2019). (forthcoming 2019)
The Perils of the Quest for Equal Results, FIRST THINGS (Forthcoming 2018). (forthcoming 2018)
Debating Immigration Restriction: The Case for Low and Slow, GEO. J. L. & PUB. POL'Y (forthcoming Summer 2018). (forthcoming 2018)
What’s the Problem with Gatekeeping?, The Weekly Standard (forthcoming Summer 2018) (forthcoming 2018)
Religious vs. Secular Reservations about Same-Sex Marriage: A Comparative Analysis (forthcoming)
Against Perversity: Horizontal Equity and Poor Relief (forthcoming)
Choice and Coercion in Feminist Theory: The Case of Women in Science Careers (forthcoming)
The Law and Neuroscience of Deprivation (with Martha Farah) (forthcoming)
Is the Family-Friendly Workplace Possible? Dynamic computer simulations using a game-theoretic model
Be All You Can Be: Data-Driven Human Capital Policy (with James Heckman)
Research Areas
- Social Welfare Law and Policy
- Labor and Employment Law
- The Law and Economics of Work and Family
- Remedies
- Social Science and Law
- Evolutionary Psychology and Law
Positions
Penn Law - Robert Mundheim Professor of Law (2007- ); Professor of Law (2001-07); Visiting Professor (2000)
University of Virginia Law School - Class of 1948 Professor of Scholarly Research in Law (2000-01); Professor (1999-2000); Associate Professor (1994-99)
Office of the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. - Assistant to the Solicitor General (1988-94)
Law Clerk to the Honorable Abner J. Mikva, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, (1987-88)
Consulting Neurologist, Bronx Cross County Clinic, Bronx, New York, and Brooklyn North Medical Group (1985-87)
Resident in Neurology, New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center (1982-85)
Courses
- Civil Procedure
- Labor Law
- Social Welfare Law & Policy
- Remedies
- Law and Economics of Work and Family
- Supreme Court Practice and Process