Professor Barnhizer teaches and writes in the areas of contract law & theory, conservation law, comparative law, and the jurisprudence associated with the rule of law. Currently the Bradford Stone Faculty Scholar at Michigan State University College of Law, and a coauthor of casebooks in the fields of Contracts and Commercial Transactions, Professor Barnhizer also directs the Conservation Law Program and the Journals Program at the Law College, as well as the MSU College of Law Institute for Comparative Law & Jurisprudence at the University of Białystok Faculty of Law in Poland. Prior to coming to Michigan State in 2001, Professor Barnhizer worked for the law firms of Hogan & Hartson and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Washington, D.C., and as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Richard L. Nygaard, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, and for the Honorable Robert B. Krupansky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, sitting by designation on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
Download Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
J.D. Harvard Law School
B.A. Miami University
Law Faculty Repository »
Law Review Articles
Inequality of Bargaining Power, 76 Colorado Law Review 139 (2005)
Givings Recapture: Funding Public Acquisition of Private Property Interests on the Coasts, 27 The Harvard Environmental Law Review 297 (2003)
Recent Developments: Joint and Several Liability and Contribution under CERCLA Sections 107(a)(4)(B) 113(f)(1), 18 The Harvard Environmental Law Review 563 (1994)
Other Publications and Writings
Amicus brief on behalf of Wirginia Winereis Association in Swedenburg v. Kelly, __ U.S. __ (with Adam Mossoff) (10 law professors joined in the brief, including Randy Barnett, Richard Epstein and Paul Finkelman) (2005)
Michigan Prohibition on Interstate Shipment of Wine is Unconstitutional Discrimination, (with Adam Mossoff), Detroit Free Press, December 6, 2004
Mentoring as Duty and Privilege, Michigan Bar Journal, January 2003, at 46
CISG as an Alternative System of Default Rules Governing the Sale of Goods, in Randy E. Barnett, Contracts: Cases and Doctrine (3d ed. 2003)
Works in Progress
Bargaining Power in Contract Theory, in DiMatteo, et. Al., Theories of Contract: A Pluralist Vision of Contractual Obligation
The Historical Development of Bargaining Power as a Legal Concept
Descartes and the Common Law: Visual Depictions of the Relation of Contract, Tort, Property and the Criminal Law (with Charles Ten Brink)
Civil Rights and Natural Rights: Resuscitating a Classical Approach to Political Theory (with Adam Mossoff)
American Legal History Seminar
(Formerly DCL 552)
This seminar will analyze the tension between the rights of the individual and the role of government in society as the central theme in the development of the American legal system. Rather than a strict chronological review, the course will consist of a series of studies of the development of legal and political institutions and their effect on the citizenry. Classes will be discussion-based and will rely on extensive reading of original sources. Students should gain an understanding of how the evolution of legal rules reflects institutional change, and should learn to see law as a dynamic process rather than a collection of static concepts.
Fulfills ULWR
Business Enterprises
This course deals with issues relating to common forms of business organization, including corporations, limited liability companies and closely held corporations. The four credit version of Business Enterprises also includes an introduction to mergers and acquisitions.
