Regina Austin L'73
William A. Schnader Professor of Law

Regina Austin’s scholarship focuses on the impact of law on cultural conflicts arising from race, gender, and class inequality, with much of it revolving around the critical analysis of ethnographies and law-genre documentary films and photography. In addition to using nonfiction films in teaching traditional torts courses, she directs the pathbreaking Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law which hosts screenings of law-genre documentaries, maintains a national archive of clemency videos as a resource for capital defense attorneys, and produces mitigation videos on behalf of young, first-time defendants in cooperation with the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
Articles and Book Chapters
Ed Baker, Colleague, 12 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 939 (2010).
Kwanzaa and the Commodification of Black Culture, BLACK RENAISSANCE/RENAISSANCE NOIRE (2004).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
The Saga of Pennsylvania’s “Willie Horton” and the Commutation of Life Sentences in the Commonwealth, U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 20-10 (forthcoming)
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"Not Just a Common Criminal": The Case for Sentencing Mitigation Videos, U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 14-19. (forthcoming)
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Race and Law-Genre Amateur Documentaries: Lessons Learned When the Subaltern Shoots
Documenting Injustice: Katrina, Class, and Visual Legal Advocacy
'Black People's Money': The Impact of Law, Economics, and Culture in the Context of Race on Damage Recoveries (July 26, 2003), U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 16-24.
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Research Areas
- Torts
- Insurance
- Law & Cultural Studies
- Minority Feminism
- Law-Genre Documentary Film Studies (Criticism and Production)
Positions
Penn Law - William A. Schnader Professor (1996- ); Professor (1990-96); Associate Professor (1983-90); Assistant Professor (1977-83)
Law Clerk to the Hon. Edmund B. Spaeth, Superior Court of Pennsylvania (1973-74)
Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis - Associate (1974-77)
Visiting Professor - Columbia, Brooklyn, Stanford, Harvard, Fordham
Courses
- Torts I
- Cultural Conflict and the Intentional Torts
- Visual Legal Advocacy
- Documentaries & the Law