Matthew Adler
James S. Carpentier Visiting Professor of Law (Spring 2009)
Courses/Current Researcho Administrative Law
o Constitutional Law
o Social Science and the Law
Educationo Yale Law School, J.D., 1991
o Oxford, M.Litt. (history,) 1986
o Yale, B.A., 1984
Media Contact: Media Relations (212) 854-2850
Detailed BiographyMatthew Adler, appointed to the University of Pennsylvania Law Faculty in 1995, is a prolific and respected scholar in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law, regulation, and legal theory. He is particularly interested in the application of rigorous philosophical techniques to problems of public law.
Adler's scholarship focuses on three areas:
o Policy analysis, including cost-benefit analysis, the distributive implications of policy choice, alternative metrics such as QALYs, the use of surveys to measure well-being, incommensurability, the choice between lifetime and sublifetime perspectives, bounded rationality and other issues.
o Risk regulation. Adler's next book project is to explore the normative foundations of risk regulation from both welfarist and non-welfarist perspectives.
o Constitutional theory. Adler's early work in this area concerned the structure of constitutional rights, and he has more recently published a series of articles about the applicability of H.L.A. Hart's notion of a "rule of recognition" to the U.S. Constitution.
Adler has also been recognized in 2001 and 2006 by Penn Law students with the Harvey Levin Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2007, he received the University’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Representative PublicationsInequality and Uncertainty: Theory and Legal Applications, 155 U. PA. L. REV. 279 (2006). (Joint work: Matthew Adler & Chris Sanchirico).
New Foundations Of Cost Benefit Analysis (2006) (with Eric Posner).
Constitutional Fidelity, The Rule of Recognition, and the Communitarian Turn in Contemporary Positivism, 75 FORDHAM L. REV. 1671 (2006).
Policy Analysis for Natural Hazards, 56 DUKE L.J. 1 (2006)
Welfare Polls: A Synthesis, 81 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1875 (2006).
Equity Analysis and Natural Hazards Policy, in ON RISK AND DISASTER: LESSONS FROM HURRICANE KATRINA 129 (Ronald Daniels et al. eds., 2006)
Popular Constitutionalism and the Rule of Recognition: Whose Practices Ground U.S. Law? 100 NW. U. L. REV. 719 (2006).
QALYs and Policy Evaluation: A New Perspective, 6 YALE J. HEALTH POL’Y, L. & ETHICS 1 (2006).
Fear Assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Pricing of Fear and Anxiety, 79 CHI. -KENT L. REV 977 (2004).
Risk, Death and Harm: The Normative Foundations of Risk Regulation, 87 MINN. L. REV. 1293 (2003).
The Puzzle of "Ex Ante Efficiency": Does Rational Approvability Have Moral Weight?, 151 U. PA. L. REV. 1255 (2003).
Constitutional Existence Conditions and Judicial Review, 89 VA. L. REV. 1105 (2003) (with Michael C. Dorf).
