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Amy Wax

Robert Mundheim Professor of Law

Amy Wax

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. Continue reading…

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).

Comment (for Symposium on Stephen Macedo’s, Just Married), online at Syndicate (https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/just-married/), final version posted and last modified Feb. 22, 2018.

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).

Saving the American Dream; It’s not just about the people at the top (essay on Richard Reeves's Dream Hoarders), COMMENT. (Oct. 17, 2017).

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 Poverty of the Neuroscience of Poverty: Policy Payoff or False Promise?, 57 JURIMETRICS 239 (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)

Diverging Family Structure and 'Rational' Behavior: The Decline in Marriage as a Disorder of Choice, in THE ECONOMICS OF THE FAMILY (Lloyd R. Cohen & Joshua D. Wright eds., Elgar Publishers 2011).

Stereotype threat: a Case of Overclaim Syndrome?, in STEREOTYPE THREAT AND UNCONSCIOUS BIAS: THE STATE OF THE RESEARCH (Christina Hoff Summers, ed., American Enterprise Institute 2009).

The Family Law Doctrine of Equivalence, 107 MICH L. REV. 999 (2009) (reviewing Nancy D. Polikoff, BEYOND (STRAIGHT AND GAY) MARRIAGE: VALUING ALL FAMILIES UNDER THE LAW (2008)).

Norm Change or Judicial Decree? The Courts, the Public, and Welfare Reform, 32 HARV. J. L. & PUB. POL’Y 45 (2009).

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

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