After a 15-year hiatus, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Colin S. Diver Professor of Law Paul Robinson was reelected as a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) in June.
Founded in 1923, the ALI is an independent organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. Its elected members include eminent lawyers, judges, and academics. In the area of criminal law – Robinson’s specialty – the ALI promulgated the Model Penal Code, which is today the basis for criminal law codification in three-quarters of the states.
“Professor Robinson is one of the world’s leading criminal law scholars, and this is a richly deserved honor for him,” said Theodore Ruger, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law. “His writings on punishment, deterrence, justification, and desert, to name just a few of his areas of expertise, have left an indelible mark on the field.”
Robinson is the author or editor of seventeen books, including several widely used casebooks and books for general audiences, in addition to more than a hundred scholarly articles. His writings have been published in 15 languages, and he lectures frequently throughout the U.S. and abroad. His most recent books include Crimes That Changed Our World: Tragedy, Outrage & Reform (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) and, with Tyler Scott Williams, Mapping American Criminal Law: Variations Across the 50 States (Praeger, 2018).
A former federal prosecutor and counsel for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures, Robinson began his academic career at Rutgers University School of Law at Camden in 1977. He joined the Penn Law faculty in 2003.
Robinson was previously a member of ALI from 1990 to 1995 but withdrew because the body was not at that time working on criminal law matters. “They are back in that business now,” said Robinson, “so I’m happy to contribute once again.”
Professor of Law Jean Galbraith was elected to the ALI earlier this year and Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences Cary Coglianese was elected in the fall of 2019.
Many other Law School faculty members participate in the work the ALI does to refine and reform various areas of American law.
William Maul Measey Professor of Law Tom Baker was Reporter for the recently published Restatement of the Law: Liability Insurance. Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy Anita L. Allen and John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science Christopher Yoo served as Advisers on Principles of the Law: Data Privacy. Allen is now an Adviser on Restatement of the Law (Third): Torts Defamation and Privacy, and Yoo is an Adviser on Principles for Data Economy, a joint project with the European Law Institute. Catherine Struve serves on the Council of the ALI, its governing board of directors, and also serves as an Adviser on Restatement of the Law, The Law of American Indians; Shyamkrishna Balganesh serves as an Adviser on Restatement of the Law, Copyright.