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Michael S. Green

Michael S. Green

Woodbridge Professor of Law
Degrees: J.D., Yale; Ph.D., Yale; B.A., University of California, Berkeley
Email: [[msgre2]]
Office phone: (757) 221-7746
Office location: Room 260
Full resume: here (.pdf in new window)
Personal web page: here
Areas of Specialization

Civil Procedure; Conflict of Laws; Constitutional Law; Continental Philosophy; Federal Courts; Jurisprudence; Philosophy of Law; Professional Responsibility

Teaching Interests

Civil Procedure; Conflicts; Philosophy of Law

Representative Professional Activities and Achievements

Joined the faculty in 2006 after teaching law at George Mason Law School. Clerked for Judge Richard A. Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Practiced law at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York City. Was assistant professor of philosophy at Tufts University and visiting lecturer in philosophy at the University of Alabama (Huntsville), Wesleyan University and Yale University.Author of The Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law (Oxford U. Press, 2024) and Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition (U. Ill. Press, 2002), as well as numerous articles and essays, including publications in the Duke Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, and the Virginia Law Review.


Scholarly Publications
Books
  • The Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law (Oxford U. Press 2024) (Roxana Banu, Michael S. Green and Ralf Michaels eds.). Online.
  • Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition (International Nietzsche Studies Series, U. Ill. Press 2002).
Articles and Book Chapters
  • The Moral Impact Theory and the Separability Theses, in The Routledge Companion to the Separability of Law and Morality (Kenneth E. Himma, Josep Juan Moreso, and Gonzalo Villa-Rosas eds., Routledge Publishing, forthcoming).
  • American Legal Realism, in Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Theory and Philosophy (John Linarelli ed., Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming).
  • Authority, Meta-Authority and Emergency, in Constitutional Polycrisis and Emergency Constitutionalism (Martin Belov ed., Palgrave, forthcoming).
  • Liberties and Absences, 17 Jurisprudence __ (forthcoming 2026) (reviewing Matthew H. Kramer Rights and Right-Holding: A Philosophical Investigation (Oxford University Press 2024). SSRN.
  • A Plea for Private International Law (Conflict of Laws), 100 Notre Dame L. Rev. Reflection 73 (2025). Online.
  • Authority and Interest Analysis, in The Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law (Oxford U. Press 2024) (Roxana Banu, Michael S. Green & Ralf Michaels eds.). SSRN.
  • Jurisdiction and the Moral Impact Theory of Law, 29 Legal Theory 29 (2023). Online.
  • Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins in a Private International Law Context, in The Common Law Jurisprudence of the Conflict of Laws (2023) (Sarah McKibbin and Anthony Kennedy eds., Hart Publ'g, 2023).
  • Permissions Deontic Voids, and the Karamazov Argument, 66 American Journal of Jurisprudence 291 (2021). SSRN.
  • Hans Kelsen's Non-Reductive Positivism, in Cambridge Companion to Legal Positivism (2021) (Torben Spaak & Patricia Mindus, eds., Cambridge U. Press ). SSRN.
  • The Semantic Thesis in Legal Positivism, (Torben Spaak & Patricia Mindus, eds., Cambridge U. Press 2021). SSRN.
  • The Erie Doctrine: A Flowchart, 52 Akron L. Rev. 215 (2019). SSRN.
  • L'anglo-américanisation de Kelsen, in Un Classique Méconnu: Hans Kelsen (Thomas Hochmann, Xavier Magnon, & Régis Ponsard eds., Editions Mare et Martin, 2019).
  • Legal Monism: An American History, in Vienna Lectures on Law and Philosophy (Christoph Bezemek, Michael Potacs and Alexander Somek, eds., Hart Publishing 2018). SSRN.
  • Logic and Legal Realism, in Research Handbook in Law and Logic (Dieter Krimphove & Florian Simon eds., Dunker & Humblot 2017). SSRN.
  • The Return of the Unprovided-For Case, 51 Ga. L. Rev. 761 (2017). SSRN.
  • A Puzzle about Hart's Theory of Internal Legal Statements, in Pragmatics and Law: Practical and Theoretical Perspectives (Francesca Poggi & Alessandro Capone eds., Springer Verlag 2016). SSRN.
  • Marmor’s Kelsen, in Hans Kelsen in America (D. A. Jeremy Telman ed., Springer 2016). SSRN.
  • Was Afrikan Spir a Phenomenalist? (and What Difference Does It Make for Understanding Nietzsche)?, 46 Journal of Nietzsche Studies 152 (2015) (symposium). SSRN.
  • Eternal Recurrence in a Neo-Kantian Context, 54 Kriterion: Revista de Filosofia 459 (2014) (symposium). Online.
  • Prediction Theories of Law and the Internal Point of View, 51 San Diego L. Rev. 921 (2014) (symposium).
  • Vertical Power, 48 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 73 (2014). SSRN.
  • Erie's International Effect, 107 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1485 (2013) (previously published at 107 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 165 (2012)). SSRN.
  • Felix Cohen on Legislation, 1 The Theory and Practice of Legislation 113 (2013) (symposium).
  • Law's Dark Matter, 54 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 845 (2013) (symposium). SSRN.
  • On Hart's Category Mistake, 19 Legal Theory 347 (2013) (symposium). SSRN.
  • The Twin Aims of Erie, 88 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1865 (2013). SSRN.
  • Erie's Suppressed Premise, 95 Minn. L. Rev. 1111 (2011). SSRN.
  • Choice of Law as General Common Law: A Reply to Professor Brilmayer, in The Role of Ethics in Private International Law (Donald Earl Childress III ed., Cambridge U. Press 2011). Online.
  • Horizontal Erie and the Presumption of Forum Law, 109 Mich. L. Rev. 1237 (2011). SSRN.
  • Leiter on the Legal Realists, 30 Law & Phil. 381 (2011) (reviewing Brian Leiter, Naturalizing Jurisprudence (Oxford Univ. Press 2007). SSRN.
  • Kelsen, Quietism, and the Rule of Recognition, (Matthew D. Adler & Kenneth E. Himma eds., Oxford U. Press 2009) (essay). SSRN.
  • Two Fallacies about Copyrighting Factual Compilations, in Intellectual Property Protection of Fact-Based Works: Copyright and Its Alternatives (Robert Brauneis ed., Edward Elgar Press 2009). SSRN.
  • Does Dworkin Commit Dworkin's Fallacy?, 28 Oxford J. Legal Stud. 33 (2008). Online.
  • Why Protect Private Arms Possession? Nine Theories of the Second Amendment, 84 Notre Dame L. Rev. 131 (2008). SSRN.
  • Dworkin v. The Philosophers, 2007 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1477 (2007) (reviewing Ronald Dworkin, Justice in Robes (Harvard U. Press 2006). SSRN.
  • Explaining Tort Law, 48 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1953 (2007) (symposium).
  • Halpin on Dworkin's Fallacy: A Surreply, 91 Va. L. Rev. 187 (2005). SSRN.
  • Legal Realism as Theory of Law, 46 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1915 (2005). SSRN.
  • Legal Revolutions: Six Mistakes About Discontinuity in the Legal Order, 83 N.C. L. Rev. 331 (2005). SSRN.
  • White and Clark on Nietzsche and the Transcendental Tradition: A Response, 36 Int'l Stud. Phil. 169 (2005) (symposium).
  • Nietzsche's Place in Nineteenth Century German Philosophy, 47 Inquiry 168 (2004) (reviewing Will Dudley, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom (Cambridge U. Press, 2002). Online.
  • Copyrighting Facts, 78 Ind. L.J. 919 (2003). SSRN.
  • Dworkin's Fallacy, Or What the Philosophy of Language Can't Teach Us About the Law, 89 Va. L. Rev. 1897 (2003). SSRN.
  • Hans Kelsen and the Logic of Legal Systems, 53 Ala. L. Rev. 365 (2003). SSRN.
  • The Paradox of Auxiliary Rights: The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 52 Duke L.J. 113 (2002). SSRN.
  • The Privilege's Last Stand: The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination and the Right to Rebel Against the State, 65 Brook. L. Rev. 627 (1999). Online.
  • Note, Legal Realism, Lex Fori, and the Choice-of-Law Revolution, 104 Yale L.J. 967 (1995). Online.
  • Nietzsche on Pity and Ressentiment, 24 Int'l Stud. Phil. 63 (1992).

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