Randy E. Barnett
Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Email: click here

Books

Constitutional Law: Cases in Context, Aspen Law & Business, 2008

Contract Cases and Doctrine, Fourth Edition, Aspen Law & Business, 2008 (Third Edition, 2003; Second Edition, 1999; First Edition, Little, Brown & Co., 1995)

Recent Developments in Constitutional Law, 2008 Edition, Aspen Law & Business

Perspectives on Contract Law, Third Edition, Aspen Law & Business, 2005 (Second Edition, 2001; First Edition, Little, Brown, & Co., 1995)

Restoring the Lost Constitution: the Presumption of Liberty, Princeton University Press, (2003) (paperback ed. 2005); excerpted in Constitutional Law: Cases, Comments, Questions (Choper, Fallon, Kamisar, Shiffrin, eds, 10th ed., forthcoming)

The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law, Oxford University Clarendon Press (1998) (paperback ed. 2000)
Winner 1998 Ralph Gregory Elliot Book

The Rights Retained by the People: the History and Meaning of the Ninth Amendment—Volume Two (editor) George Mason University Press, 1993

Assessing the Criminal: Restitution, Retribution and the Legal Process (coeditor with John Hagel III) Ballinger Publishing Co., 1977

Op-eds

Inside Professor Obama's Classroom
The Caucus: The New York Times Political Blog

July 30, 2008

News Flash: The Constitution Means What It Says

Wall Street Journal
June 27, 2008; Page A13

Gun-Rights Showdown

Wall Street Journal

March 18, 2008

Libertarians and the War: Ron Paul doesn't speak for all of us

Wall Street Journal

July 17, 2007

Three Cheers for Lawyers
Wall Street Journal
April 17, 2007

Cronyism
Wall Street Journal
October 4, 2005
Rehnquist's Legacy
Wall Street Journal
September 10, 2005
The Ninth Circuit's Revenge
National Review Online
June 9th, 2005
Federalism Wins.
National Review Online
December 19th, 2003.
Rush Clarification: Reading into Limbaugh's words.
National Review Online
October 06, 2003
Kennedy's Libertarian Revolution: Lawrence's Reach
National Review Online
July 10, 2003
Do Unto Others
National Review Online
The vices of Bill Bennett
May 9, 2003
Benching Bork
How to end the war over judges.
National Review Online
April 29, 2003
Listen to Rush Limbaugh discussing Benching Bork
Keeping Libertarians Inside the Tent
Alienation avoidance.
National Review Online
November 22, 2002
Supreme Validation
No coincidence
National Review Online
November 16, 2001
Saved by the Militia
Arming an army against terrorism.
National Review Online
September 18, 2001
All over but the Whining
The spin cycle enters its next phase.
National Review Online
December 14, 2000
Getting Stevens Right
The media has twisted his words to their partisan end.
National Review Online
December 13, 2000
'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose'
An explanation of liberal legal philosophy.
Wall Street Journal
December 12, 2000
The Exclusionary Rule and the Moral Integrity of Prosecutors
Prosecutor's Brief: News Journal of the California District
Attorney's Association, Volume 10, No. 3, Summer 1987
New Ideas on Police Conduct
Chicago Tribune, September 8, 1984

Articles: Constitutional Law

PDF RETAINS THE ORIGINAL FORMATTING

The Misconceived Assumption About Constitutional Assumptions

in Symposium on "Original Ideas on Originalism"

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW (forthcoming)

Constitutional Clichés

2007 John E. Sullivan Lecture Essay

CAPITAL UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW (forthcoming)

Kurt Lash's Majoritarian Difficulty

60 Stanford Law Review 937 (2008)

Scrutiny Land (PDF)

in Symposium on "Glucksburg and Quail at Ten: Death, Dying, and the Constitution"

106 Michigan Law Review 1479 (2008)

Three Federalisms

in Symposium on "Checks and Balances Today: The Reality of Separation of Powers"

38 Loyola Law Journal 285 (2008)

The People or the State? Chisholm v. Georgia and Popular Sovereignty (PDF)
Virginia Law Review (forthcoming)

Underlying Principles
in Symposium on Jack Balkin's "Abortion and Original Meaning"
Constitutional Commentary (forthcoming)

Constitutional Conventions

Reviewing Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It), By Sanford Levinson

Claremont Review of Books, Vol. 7, Number 3, Summer 2007

The Commerce Clause
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Legal History (Barbara Black, Lawrence Friedman & Laura Kalman, eds.), Oxford University Press (forthcoming)
Retained Rights
in The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, (Paul Finkelman ed.) Routledge (forthcoming)
Lysander Spooner
in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law (Roger Newman, ed.) Yale University Press (forthcoming)
The Ninth Amendment: It Means What it Says (PDF)
85 Texas Law Review 1 (2006)
Restoring the Lost Constitution, Not the Constitution in Exile (PDF)
in Symposium on "A New Constitutional Order?"
75 Fordham Law Review 669 (2006)
Who's Afraid of Unenumerated Rights
in Symposium: on "The Future of Unenumerated Rights"
9 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 1 (2006)
Scalia's Infidelity: A Critique of Faint-Hearted Originalism
2006 William Howard Taft Lecture
73 Cincinnati Law Review 7 (2006)
Trumping Precedent With Original Meaning: Not As Radical as it Sounds (PDF)
22 Constitutional Commentary 257 (2006)

The Presumption of Liberty and the Public Interest: Medical Marijuana and Fundamental Rights (PDF)
Public Interest Law Speakers Series
22 Washington University Journal of Law &Amp; Policy 29 (2006)

Caveat Blogger: Blogging and the Flight From Scholarship

84 Washington University Law Review 1145 (2006)

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No, It's Super-Precedent: A Reply to Farber and Gerhard (PDF)
in "Symposium on The Future of the Supreme Court:Institutional Reform and Beyond" 90 Minnesota Law Review 1232 (2006)
Clauses Not Cases: A Reply to Robert Post and Reva Siegel
Yale L.J. (The Pocket Part), Jan. 2006
Libertarianism and Legitimacy: A Reply to Huebert (PDF)
Journal of Libertarian Studies 19, No. 4 (Fall 2005): 71–78
Limiting Raich (PDF)
in "Symposium on Federalism After Gonzales v. Raich?"
9 Lewis & Clark Law Review 743 (2005)
Grading Justice Kennedy: A Reply to Professor Carpenter
89 Minnesota Law Review 1582 (2005)
Why You Should Read My Book Anyway: A Reply to Trevor Morrison (PDF)
90 Cornell Law Review 873 (2005)
Constitutive Commitments and Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights: A Dialogue (PDF)
53 Drake Law Review 205 (2005) (with Cass Sunstein)

The Ninth Amendment
in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (Kermit Hall, ed.) Oxford University Press 589, 1992; Revised version in 2d edition (2005)

Foreword: What's So Wicked About Lochner?

1 NYU Journal of Law & LIberty 325 (2005)

Was the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Conditioned on Service in an Organized Militia? (PDF)
Reviewing The Militia and the Right to Arms, or, How the Second Amendment Fell Silent
by H. Richard Uviller & William G. Merkel
83 Texas Law Review 237 (2004)

The Proper Scope of the Police Power (PDF)
79 Notre Dame Law Review 429 (2004)
The Original Meaning of the Judicial Power (PDF)
12 Supreme Court Economic Review 115-138 (2004)
Constitutional Legitimacy Without Consent: Do the Laws of a Nation State Ever Bind in Conscience?
Kobe 2000 Lectures delivered at the University of Tokyo and Doshisha University, Kyoto
90 ARSPArchiv fuer Rechts und Sozialphilosophie 197-209 (2004)
Constitutional Legitimacy (PDF)
103 Columbia Law Review 111 (2003)
Justice Kennedy's Libertarian Revolution: Lawrence v. Texas (PDF)
Cato Supreme Court Review 2002-2003 21 (2003)
Excerpted in Constitutional Law: Cases, Comments, Questions (Choper, Fallon, Kamisar, Shiffrin, eds, 10th ed., forthcoming)
The Original Meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause (PDF)
6 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 185 (2003)
New Evidence of the Original Meaning of the Commerce Clause (PDF)
in "Symposium on the Commerce Clause"
55 University of Arkansas Law Review 847 (2003)
Is the Rehnquist Court an "Activist" Court? The Commerce Clause Cases (PDF)
in "Symposium on Conservative Judicial Activism"
73 University of Colorado Law Review 1275 (2002)
The Original Meaning of the Commerce Clause (PDF)
68 University of Chicago Law Review 101 (2001)
The Right to Liberty in a Good Society (with Douglas Rasmussen) (PDF)
in "Symposium on the Constitution and the Good Society"
69 Fordham Law Review 1603 (2001)
The Ninth Amendment
in The Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, & Adam Winkler, eds.) Macmillian Publishing (2000), pp. 1813-15.
Commentary on the Second Amendment
in "Symposium on the Second Amendment"
10 Seton Hall Const. L.J. 849 (2000)
An Originalism for Nonoriginalists (PDF)
The Brendon Brown Lecture
45 Loyola Law Review (1999)
Was Slavery Unconstitutional Before the Thirteenth Amendment? Lysander Spooner's Theory of Interpretation (PDF)
Distinguished Speakers Series
28 Pacific Law Journal 977 (1997)
Necessary and Proper (PDF)
44 U.C.L.A. Law Review 745 (1997); and in
The Supreme Court and American Constitutionalism, Rowman & Littlefield, (1998)
The Relevance of Framers' Intent (PDF)
in "Symposium on Originalism"
19 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 403 (1996)
Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment (coauthor) (PDF)
45 Emory Law Journal 1139 (1996)
Getting Normative: The Role of Natural Rights in Constitutional Adjudication (PDF)
12 Constitutional Commentary 93 (1995); and in
Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality
(Robert P. George, ed.) Oxford University Clarendon Press (1996)
Guns, Militias and Oklahoma City (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on the Second Amendment"
62 Tennessee Law Review 433 (1995)
Reinventing the First Amendment
in Ethics and the University: Community, Diversity and Morality in the American Academy (M.N.S. Sellers, ed.) Berg Publishers 163, 1994
The Intersection of Natural Rights and Positive Constitutional Law (PDF)
in "Commentary on Frederick Shauer's Constitutional Positivism"
25 Connecticut Law Review 853 (1993)
Implementing the Ninth Amendment
Introduction to The Rights Retained by the People: the History and Meaning of the Ninth Amendment—Volume Two (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1993)
A Ninth Amendment for Today’s Constitution (PDF)
26 Valparaiso Law Review 419 (1991); and in
The Bill of Rights in Modern America: After 200 Years
(D. Bodenhamer & J. Ely, eds) Indiana University Press, 1993
Unenumerated Constitutional Rights and the Rule of Law (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Rules and the Rule of Law"
14 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 615 (1991)
Two Conceptions of the Ninth Amendment (PDF)
12 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 29 (1989)
Reconceiving the Ninth Amendment (PDF)
74 Cornell Law Review 1 (1988)
The Ninth Amendment and Constitutional Legitimacy (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Interpreting the Ninth Amendment"
64 Chicago-Kent Law Review 37 (1988)
Are Enumerated Constitutional Rights The Only Rights We Have? The Case of Associational Freedom (PDF)
10 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 101 (1987)
Judicial Conservatism v. A Principled Judicial Activism (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Law and Philosophy"
10 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 273 (1987)
Review of Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain
by Richard Epstein, 97 Ethics 669 (1987)

Articles: Contracts

PDF RETAINS THE ORIGINAL FORMATTING

Theory and Anti-Theory in the Work of Allan Farnsworth

International Contracts Law Conference Discussion

13 Texas Weslayan Law Review 1 (2006)

Consenting to Form Contracts (PDF)
in "Symposium in Honor of Professor Joseph Perillo"
71 Fordham Law Review 627 (2002)

Is Reliance Still Dead? (PDF)
in Symposium on "W(h)ither the Reliance Interest"
38 San Diego Law Review 1 (2001)
The Richness of Contract Theory (PDF)
Reviewing The Richness of Contract Law by Robert Hillman
97 Michigan Law Review 1413 (1999)
Free to Choose (PDF)
21 Seattle Law Review 721 (1998)
The Death of Reliance (PDF)
In "AALS Workshop Symposium: The Last Ten Years"
46 Journal of Legal Education 518 (1996)
. . . and Contractual Consent (PDF)
in "Symposium on Default Rules and Contractual Consent"
3 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Review 421 (1994)
Conflicting Visions: A Critique of Ian Macneil's Relational Theory of Contract (PDF)
78 Virginia Law Review 1175 (1992)
The Sound of Silence: Default Rules and Contractual Consent (PDF)
78 Virginia Law Review 821 (1992)
Reprinted in The International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (2d Series)
(B. Bix, ed.) Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming 1999
Some Problems With Contract as Promise (PDF)
77 Cornell Law Review 1022 (1992)
Rational Bargaining Theory and Contract: Default Rules, Hypothetical Consent, the Duty to Disclose, and Fraud (PDF)
in "Symposium on Risks and Wrongs"
15 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 783 (1992)
The Function of Several Property and Freedom of Contract
in "Symposium on Economic Rights" 9 Social Philosophy and Policy 62 (1992)
Compensation and Rights in the Liberal Conception of Justice
in Compensatory Justice: Nomos XXXIII
(J. Chapman & J. Coleman, eds.) New York University Press, 1991
Squaring Undisclosed Agency Law With Contract Theory (PDF)
75 California Law Review 1969 (1987)
Beyond Reliance: Promissory Estoppel, Contract Formalities and Misrepresentation (PDF)
(with Mary Becker)
15 Hofstra Law Review 445 (1987)
Excerpted in Cases and Materials on Contracts 2d ed.
(R. Hamilton & A. Rau, eds.) West Publishing Co., 1992
Contract Remedies and Inalienable Rights
in "Symposium on Philosophy and Law"
4 Social Policy and Philosophy 179 (1986)
Reprinted in Philosophy and Law
(J. Coleman & E. Paul, eds.) Basil Blackwell, 1987
Revised and incorporated in:
Rights and Remedies in a Consent Theory of Contract
in Liability: New Essays in Legal Philosophy
(R.G. Frey & C. Morris, eds.) Cambridge University Press, 1991
A Consent Theory of Contract (PDF)
86 Columbia Law Review 269 (1986)
Reprinted in The International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory
(L. Alexander ed.) Dartmouth Publishing Co., 1991
Excerpted in Studies in Contract Law, 4th ed.
(E. Murphy & R. Speidel eds.) Foundation Press, 1991
Excerpted in A Contracts Anthology
(P. Linzer ed.) Anderson Publishing Co., 1989 & 1995
Revised and incorporated in:
Rights and Remedies in a Consent Theory of Contract
in Liability: New Essays in Legal Philosophy
(R.G. Frey & C. Morris, eds.) Cambridge University Press, 1991
Excerpted in Contract Law
(S. Wheeler & J. Shaw) Oxford University Press, 1994.
Contract Scholarship and The Reemergence of Legal Philosophy (PDF)
Reviewing Contracts by E. Allan Farnsworth
97 Harvard Law Review 1223 (1984)
Excerpted in A Contracts Anthology
(P. Linzer ed.) Anderson Publishing Co., 1989

Articles: Criminal Justice

PDF RETAINS THE ORIGINAL FORMATTING

Getting Even: Restitution, Preventive Detention, and the Crime-Tort Distinction (PDF)
in "Symposium on the Crime-Tort Distinction"
76 Boston University Law Review 157 (1996)
Bad Trip: Drug Prohibition and The Weakness of Public Policy (PDF)
Reviewing America's Longest War by Stephen Duke & Albert Gross
103 Yale Law Journal 2593 (1994)
Curing the Drug Law Addiction: The Hidden Side-Effects of Legal Prohibition
in Dealing With Drugs (R. Hamowy, ed.) Lexington Books, 1987
Reprinted in Addictions: Opposing Views
(Jennifer A. Hurley, ed.) Greenhaven Press (2000)
Reprinted in Drugs: Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, or Deregulate?
(Jeffrey A. Schaler, ed.) Prometheus Books (1998)
Resolving the Dilemma of the Exclusionary Rule: An Application of Restitutive Principles of Justice (PDF)
32 Emory Law Journal 937 (1983)
The Justice of Restitution (PDF)
25 American Journal of Jurisprudence 117 (1980) Reprinted in Moral Issues
(J. Narveson, ed.) Oxford University Press, 1983
Restitution: A New Paradigm of Criminal Justice
87 Ethics 279 (1977) Reprinted in What's Wrong? an Introduction to Applied Ethics With Readings
(David Boonin & Graham Oddie) Oxford University Press, 2004
Reprinted in Law and Philosophy: an Introduction With Readings
(Thomas W. Simon, ed) McGraw-Hill College Textbook Division, 2000
Reprinted in Analyzing Moral Issues
(Judith A. Boss, ed) Mayfield Publishing Co., 1999
Reprinted in Philosophical Problems in the Law (2d ed.)
(David M. Adams, ed.) Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996
Reprinted in The Philosophy of Law
(W. Sinnott-Armstrong & F. Schauer, eds.) Harcourt Brace & Co., 1996
Reprinted in The Philosophy of Law, 5th ed.
(J. Feinberg & H. Gross, eds.) Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1995
Reprinted in The Nature and Sources of Law
(P. Smith, ed.) Oxford University Press, 1993
Reprinted in Punishment and Rehabilitation (2d ed.)
(J. Murphy, ed.) Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1985
Reprinted in Readings in the Philosophy of Law
(J. Arthur & W. Shaw, eds.) Prentice-Hall, 1984
Reprinted in Perspectives on Crime Victims
(B. Galaway & J. Hudson, eds.) C.V. Mosby Co., 1981
Assessing the Criminal: Restitution, Retribution and the Legal Process
(coauthor with John Hagel III) in Assessing the Criminal: Restitution, Retribution and the Legal Process, (R. Barnett & J. Hagel III, eds.) Ballinger Publishing Co., 1977

Articles: Cyberlaw

PDF RETAINS THE ORIGINAL FORMATTING

Reds in Suits
Review of The Future of Ideas: the Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (PDF)
by Lawrence Lessig, Regulation, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Fall 2002), p. 64

Articles: Jurisprudence and Legal Theory

PDF RETAINS THE ORIGINAL FORMATTING

The Moral Foundations of Modern Libertarianism (PDF)
in Peter Berkowitz, ed. Varieties of Conservatism in America, Hoover Institution Press (2004), p. 51
The Imperative of Natural Rights in Today's World (PDF)
The Good Society, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2003), p. 1.
The Structure Still Stands: A Reply to Narveson, Winston, & Tushnet
in "Books in Review—Randy Barnett's The Structure of Liberty"
8 The Good Society 56 (No 2. 1998)
A Law Professor's Guide to Natural Law and Natural Rights (PDF)
20 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 655 (1997)
Coping With Partiality: Justice, The Rule of Law, and the Role of Lawyers (PDF)
Distinguished Lecture
3 Roger Williams Law Review 1 (1997)
The Power of Presumptions (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Presumptions and Burdens of Proof"
17 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 613 (1994)
The Virtues of Redundancy in Legal Thought
in "Symposium on the Practical Applications of Jurisprudential Thought"
38 Cleveland-State Law Review 153 (1990)
The Internal and External Analysis of Concepts (PDF)
Comment on Peter Benson's, "Abstract Right and the Possibility of a Nondistributive Conception of Contract: Hegel and Contemporary Contract Theory"
11 Cardozo Law Review 525 (1990)
Post-Chicago Law and Economics (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Post-Chicago Law and Economics"
65 Chicago-Kent Law Review 3 (1989)
Of Chickens and Eggs—The Compatibility of Moral Rights and Consequentialist Analyses (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on the Compatability of Moral Rights and Consequentialism"
12 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 611 (1989)
Can Justice and the Rule of Law Be Reconciled? (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Law and Philosophy"
11 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 597 (1988)
Four Senses of the Public Law - Private Law Distinction (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on the Limits of Public Law"
9 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 267 (1986)
Why We Need Legal Philosophy (PDF)
Foreword to the "Symposium on Law and Philosophy"
8 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 1 (1985)
Pursuing Justice in a Free Society: Part Two—Crime Prevention and the Legal Order
Criminal Justice Ethics, Winter/Spring 1986, at 30.
Pursuing Justice in a Free Society: Part One—Power vs. Liberty
Criminal Justice Ethics, Summer/Fall 1985, at 50.
Public Decisions and Private Rights
Reviewing The Hardest Drug by John Kaplan
Criminal Justice Ethics, Summer/Fall, 1984, at 50

Articles: Legal Education

PDF RETAINS THE ORIGINAL FORMATTING

Caveat Blogger: Blogging and the Flight From Scholarship
in "Symposium on Bloggership" Washington University Law Review (forthcoming)
Beyond the Moot Law Review: A Short Story With a Happy Ending (PDF)
in "Symposium on Law Review Editing"
70 Chicago-Kent Law Review 123 (1994)