JD/PhD Programs in the U.S.: A Comment

I've had some inquiries lately about the section on the study of philosophy in law schools in the PGR like this one:

I am considering enrolling in a joint JD/PhD in philosophy next year, and I was reading through your rankings in philosophy, law, and joint JD/PhD programs. First, let me say thank you so much for the time and energy you've put in to make this information and these rankings available; it has been very helpful for me. My question, however, is if there is any reason why Harvard and Stanford are virtually not mentioned on the "The Study of Philosophy in Law Schools" page on philosophicalgourmet.com. Do their programs for law and philosophy not match up with the other schools mentioned? I ask because they both have very strong respective law and philosophy programs. I know you're extremely busy, so if you don't have time to respond about this, I completely understand. However, if you do get a chance, any comments would be greatly appreciated. Again, thanks so much for the rankings and information you've compiled about law schools and philosophy programs.

Legal academia is more pedigree-sensitive than academic philosophy (and I'm sure many of you think academic philosophy is way too pedigree-sensitive!), so this student's question is quite understandable.  Four law schools dominate the market for new law teachers:  Yale, Harvard, Chicago, and Stanford.  On a per capita basis, Yale is way ahead of the other three, and these four are way ahead of everyone else.  Yet two of these three "feeder" schools for legal academia go unmentioned in the current PGR section.

The reason is fairly simple.  Neither Harvard Law School nor Stanford Law School have been particularly serious about philosophy.  That has changed somewhat at Stanford, with the appointment about two years ago of the distinguished political philosopher Joshua Cohen.  Cohen, however, is also appointed in Philosophy and Political Science, so he is stretched thin, and his work has only an occasional intersection with law.  Stanford still has no one who is a major contributor to work at the core of law and philosophy, though they have some quite able faculty with jurisprudential interests but no philosophical training (e.g., Barbara Fried, Thomas Grey--though I'm told Professor Grey is thinking of retiring).  HLS, to its credit, tried to hire Martha Nussbaum from the University of Chicago Law School, but without success, and also made one other offer to a philosopher, who turned it down (I'm afraid I never got permission to post that one).  Frederick Schauer, a well-known contributor to work in law and philosophy, holds a primary appointment in the Kennedy School at Harvard, and is an "affiliated" faculty member at the Law School.  Scott Brewer, a younger scholar who has done some interesting work on philosophical issues in evidence law, is a full-time member of the Law School faculty.  But whereas HLS has a leadership position in Law & Economics and Legal History, among other areas, it is clear that the school, at least to date, has not had a lot of interest in the intersection of law and philosophy.

So among the top law schools producing new law teachers, Yale and Chicago are the only ones that have made a heavy investment in law and philosophy--and both have increased that investment as of late (Chicago, as readers know, has recruited me to the faculty, established a multi-year visiting relationship with Leslie Green [Oxford], and also now hires an annual 'Law and Philosophy Fellow;' and Yale Law School has an offer out to my good friend Scott Shapiro at Michigan, and also now sponsors a jurisprudential post-doc most years).  Of these two universities, Yale clearly has the stronger philosophy department overall, one that has made a particular push forward in moral and political philosophy with the additions of Stephen Darwall from Michigan and Thomas Pogge from Columbia.  Chicago, on the other hand, continues to have the best faculty in Continental philosophy in the Anglophone world, and given that Nussbaum and I both have more substantial historical interests than is typical among law-and-philosophy types, Chicago might well be more attractive for students with appropriate interests.  Yale, on the other hand, has an official JD/PhD program with philosophy, while students at Chicago, as things presently stand, can pursue both degrees concurrently.  (Students thinking about Chicago should feel free to e-mail me.)

Assuming Shapiro goes to Yale (that is still undecided), the top two choices for a joint JD/PhD will surely be Yale and NYU--NYU having the advantage of a much better philosophy department, with Yale having the advantage of a much better law school; and NYU also having a stronger law and philosophy group in the Law School (at Yale Law School, the key players would be Shapiro and Jules Coleman; at NYU Law School, they are Jeremy Waldron, Liam Murphy, Samuel Scheffler, Thomas Nagel, and [part-time] Ronald Dworkin).  The proximity of the two schools--Yale Law School and NYU Philosophy--might encourage some students to do one degree at each, an approach that many students take (i.e., doing the JD at one school and the PhD at another).  The main advantage of doing both degrees at the same school is usually (1) saving time, through double-counting courses, and (2) continuity of supervision with faculty.  (The proximity of Yale and NYU largely obviates (2) as an issue.)  But the law schools at NYU and Columbia (along with those at Berkeley, Michigan, and Virginia) also produce a good number of law teachers, so an NYU JD/PhD should be considered an attractive option.  (If Shapiro stays at Michigan, then NYU should dominate for the JD/PhD.)

In terms of the JD/PhD, there are not a lot of changes from the 2006 PGR.  Columbia still has the roughly half-time presence of Joseph Raz, the preeminent figure in the field of legal philosophy, who is now retired from Oxford.  If they make additional appointments to complement Raz's presence, a Columbia JD/PhD may become even more appealing, given the excellence of the Philosophy Department.  Berkeley does not have a formal JD/PhD, and Berkeley's philosophy department is in something of a state of transition (the law school is in better shape), but it is still a school clearly worth considering.  The Law School at Texas has a very strong commitment to philosophical study (even with my departure), and probably the best philosophy of criminal law cohort in the country (Berman and Deigh); the weak link at Texas is the Philosophy Department, which while very strong in areas like philosophy of language and philosophical logic, seems to be less committed to the JD/PhD program, though perhaps that will change.  Penn, like Texas, has a top law school and a substantial investment in law and philosophy, including one of the leading figures in the field (Stephen Perry); philosophy at Penn is not as strong as law, but has a strong cohort in political philosophy (including Samuel Freeman, who is a key player in the JD/PhD program) and history of philosophy through Kant.  Michigan's situation is a bit uncertain:  Shapiro's departure would be a big setback, and the philosophy department itself seems to be entering a period of transition as well.  UCLA is the final top option worth serious consideration.  The philosophy department is much better than the law school, which has not, generally, been a feeder school for legal academia, but there is an excellent law-and-philosophy group (including David Dolinko, Mark Greenberg, Stephen Munzer, and Seana Shiffrin) which might make UCLA a very appealing choice for the JD/PhD. 

The University of Southern California has also, in recent years, strengthened its philosophy department (now clearly top 20) and law-and-philosophy in the Law School (Andrei Marmor was the key addition), though it would not be preferable to most of the schools noted above.  The same might be said about North Carolina, which has a good (but not top twenty) law school and an excellent philosophy department, including one of the major senior figures in law and philosophy, Gerald Postema, who is cross-appointed to the two units.  Other schools that also might be worth looking at for the JD/PhD would include Georgetown, Illinois, Minnesota, and Virginia:  at Georgetown and UVA, law is much stronger than philosophy, but there are good folks in both units; at Illinois and Minnesota, law is stronger than philosophy, but again there are scholars in both units, some cross-appointed, that make the schools appealing choices for those interested in law and philosophy.

UPDATE:  A JD/PhD student points out to me, correctly, that there are often big differences in funding packages between schools that offer the JD and PhD--the preceding discussion pertains, obviously, only to the academic merits, not dollars and cents!  Penn, for example, has long been notable for the generosity of its funding on both the law and philosophy sides of the equation.