Randy Barnett to join Georgetown, Mark Tushnet to leave
The word on the street is that my libertarian friends are ecstatic at the news that Professor Randy Barnett, formerly of Boston University Law School, will join the staff at Georgetown Law. Info about him can ber found at his personal web page. He is a libertarian of the true variety, as opposed to those who use the term as simply a nicer way fo saying "conservative".
To make sure that we are at push, Professor Mark Tushnet has accepted a post at Harvard Law School, meaning we have no net change in the number of constitutional scholars. He is one of the main proponents of Critical Legal Studies, a field of legal philosophy that states that the law is indeterminate.
The constitutional philosophies of the two men are quite different, and it will be interesting to see how Georgetown's Law Center will react, if at all, to the change.
posted by Chicago Typewriter at 1:56 PM
1 Comments:
Mark Tushnet was incredibly prominent. Losing him is a terrible blow to Georgetown Law's reputation. And, despite his virtues, Randy Barnett just isn't as prominent as Tushnet.
If it were a trade, would I, as Dean, make it? No. Big names are worth a lot for a lot of reasons.
But I cannot help but think that the quality of scholarship at Georgetown cannot help but increase with this change. Tushnet is not, in my belief, much of a scholar. He is prominent, true, but mostly because of a keen eye for what's hot and an enjoyable style of writing. Barnett, on the other hand, is rigorous and honest. Were I to judge them on their scholarship, Barnett would win easily.
--you-know-who
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