Theodore Ruger
Professor of Law; Deputy Dean
Theodore Ruger brings fresh insight to the study of some of the oldest questions of American law – namely the theoretical justifications for, and empirical contours of, the application of judicial authority. In exploring these issues, Ruger supplements traditional legal analysis with the methods of other disciplines, including history and political science.
Theodore Ruger brings fresh insight to the study of some of the oldest questions of American law – namely the theoretical justifications for, and empirical contours of, the application of judicial authority. In exploring these issues, Ruger supplements traditional legal analysis with the methods of other disciplines, including history and political science. His work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the Northwestern Law Review, and as the centerpiece of a symposium in Perspectives on Politics, a leading peer-reviewed political science journal. In addition to his interests in constitutional law and legislation, Ruger also teaches and writes in the area of health law and pharmaceutical regulation. His current research in that field draws on his broader work on judicial power and constitutionalism, and addresses the manner in which American legal institutions – including the U.S. Supreme Court – have shaped the field of health law over the past two centuries.
Expertise
- Health Law
- Legislation
- Constitutional Law
- Food and Drug Regulation
Articles and Book Chapters
Failure by Obsolescence: Regulatory Challenges for the FDA in the Twenty-First Century, in REGULATORY BREAKDOWN: THE CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE IN U.S. REGULATION 245 (Cary Coglianese ed., University of Pennsylvania Press 2012).
A New Deal in a World of Old Ones, 42 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 1297 (2010).
Can A Patient-Centered Ethos Be Other-Regarding? Ought It Be?, 45 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 1513 (2010).
Health Law's Coherence Anxiety, 96 GEO. L.J. 625 (2008).
Gonzales v. Oregon and the Supreme Court’s (Re)Turn to Constitutional Theory, 34 J. L. MED. & ETHICS 817 (2006).
Justice Harry Blackmun and the Phenomenon of Judicial Preference Change, 70 MO. L. REV. 1209 (2005).
Establishment Clause Issues, subchapter in THE LOBBYING MANUAL (William V. Luneberg ed., 3d ed. 2005).
The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, in MAJOR ACTS OF CONGRESS (2004).
New Federalism, 16 WASH U. J.L. & POL'Y. 89 (2004).
Competing Approaches to Predicting Supreme Court Decisionmaking, 2 PERSPECTIVES ON POLITICS 761 (2004).
The Supreme Court Federalizes Managed Care Liability, 32 J. L. MED. & ETHICS 528 (2004).
The Judicial Appointment Power of the Chief Justice, 7 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 341 (2004).
Note, FDA Reform and the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, 108 HARV. L. REV. 2009 (1995).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
The Ghosts of Health Law Past (and a Glimpse of Its Future). (forthcoming 2011)
Research Areas
- Constitutional Law, History, and Theory
- Judicial Independence and Organization
- Legislation and Statutory Interpretation
- Health Law and Regulation
- Food and Drug Law
Positions
Penn Law – Professor of Law (2006- ); Assistant Professor (2004-06)
Visiting Professor - Yale, Harvard
Law Clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer, U.S. Supreme Court (1997-98)
Williams & Connolly LLP – Associate (1998-2000)
Washington University School of Law – Associate Professor (2001-04)
Law Clerk to the Hon. Michael Boudin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1996-97)
Professional Activities
Reviewer: Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law & Ethics
Courses
- Legislation
- Health Law and Regulation
- Constitutional Law
- Food and Drug Law
- Doctors, Death Panels and Democracy