Claire Finkelstein
Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy; Director, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law

Claire Finkelstein’s current research addresses national security law and policy, with a focus on ethical and rule of law issues that arise in that arena. In 2012, Professor Finkelstein founded Penn Law’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), a non-partisan interdisciplinary institute that seeks to promote the rule of law in modern day conflict, warfare, and national security.
Books
SOVEREIGNTY AND THE NEW EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY (Claire Finkelstein & Michael Skerker eds., Oxford 2019).
[Available Here]
WEIGHING LIVES IN WAR (Jens David Ohlin, Larry May & Claire Finkelstein eds., Oxford 2017).
[Available Here]
CONTRACTARIAN LEGAL THEORY (book manuscript available upon request). (forthcoming)
TARGETED KILLINGS: LAW AND MORALITY IN AN ASYMMETRICAL WORLD (Claire Finkelstein, Jens David Ohlin, & Andrew Altman, eds. Oxford 2012).
[Available Here]
HOBBES ON LAW, editor of volume for Ashgate Publishing (2005).
[Available Here]
Articles and Book Chapters
Moral Reasoning and the Death Penalty, in PHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC POLICY (Andrew Cohen ed., Rowman & Littlefield 2018).
Killing in War and the Moral Equality Thesis, 32 SOC. PHIL. & POL'Y 184 (2016).
Toward a Contractarian Theory of Law, in LAW AND SOCIAL ECONOMICS: ESSAYS IN ETHICAL VALUES FOR THEORY, PRACTICE, AND POLICY (Mark D. White, ed., Palgrave Macmillan 2015).
Responsibility and the Doctrine of Double Effect, in LAW AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION (Enrique Villanueva ed., Rodopi 2014).
Hobbesian Legal Reasoning and the Problem of Wicked Laws, in HOBBES TODAY (Sharon Lloyd, ed., Cambridge 2013).
Contractarianism, in ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Fred D’Agostino and Gerry Gaus, eds., Routledge 2012).
Punishment as Contract, 8 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 319 (2011).
A Contractarian Argument Against the Death Penalty, 81 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1283 (2006).
Hobbes and the Internal Point of View, 75 FORDHAM L. REV. 1211 (2006).
Responsibility for Unintended Consequences, 2 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 579 (2005).
Is Risk a Harm?, 151 U. PA. L. REV. 963 (2003).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN THE GLOBAL DEFENSE INDUSTRY (Kevin Govern and Claire Finkelstein eds., Oxford, forthcoming).. (forthcoming)
Contract Under Coercion: Should You Keep a Contract with a Robber? (manuscript available upon request). (forthcoming)
On Doing Something Unintended, Intentionally. (forthcoming)
Hobbes on Contract (forthcoming)
Research Areas
- Criminal Law
- Contracts
- Professional Ethics
- Moral and Political Philosophy
- Jurisprudence
- International Law
- Law of War
- Philosophy of Law
- National Security Law
Positions
Penn Law - Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy (2009- ); Professor of Law and Philosophy (2001-09); Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) (2012-); Visiting Faculty (2000-01)
University of California, Berkeley - Professor of Law (2000-2001); Acting Professor of Law (1995-99)
Visits and Fellowships - Siemens Fellow, American Academy in Berlin (2008)
Harsanyi Fellow, Center for Social and Political Philosophy, Research School for the Social Sciences, Australian National University (2000)
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow, Princeton Center for Human Values, Princeton (1999)
Visiting Fellow, Centre de Recherche en Epistemologie Apliquée (CREA) Paris, France (1998)
Professional Activities
Law and Philosophy, Advisory Board
AALS Section on Jurisprudence, Chair 2002-03
Courses
- Professional Responsibility
- National Security Law
- The Law of War
- Contracts Criminal Law
- Evidence
- Introduction to Jurisprudence
- Political Philosophy and the Law
- Jurisprudence of War Crimes
- Philosophy of Law
- Modern Legal Thought