Harvard Law Workshop Presentation ‘Highlight’ of Blankfein-Tabachnick’s Career

By Chuck Carlson

Mar. 15, 2023

Professor David Blankfein-Tabachnick In what he calls “a highlight of my career,” Michigan State University College of Law Professor David Blankfein-Tabachnick presented a paper on March 1 to the prestigious Harvard Law School Private Law Workshop.

“I was really flattered and it was heartfelt the extent to which [Harvard] faculty members had read the work and how into it they got,” he said. “It was a terrific event.”

DBT, the acronym students gave him years ago, was invited last spring by Harvard Private Law Workshop Director Professor Henry Smith. The event took place over two days with a working lunch and working dinner and included an intensive two-hour question and answer session from Harvard law faculty, fellows and students.

“I was honored by the level of scholarly attention given to me and my work,” he said. “No stone was left unturned. It was intellectual exchange and scholarly advancement at its very best.”

In fact, he joked that discussion during the working lunch session was so intense that, “I didn’t have a chance to eat. I got one quick bite of a turkey sandwich.”

DBT, an MSU professor since 2014, is actually spending this semester as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Michigan teaching contracts and intellectual property.

The draft he workshopped is entitled “Taxing the Tort/Crime Divide.” And while the discussions focused mainly on that piece, he said they extended to the full domain of his scholarly work with particular attention to the relationship between the principles of the renowned legal and political philosopher, John Rawls, and the private law.

Blankfein-Tabachnick has worked for years developing a Rawlsian account of the private law.  “When I began, there was no such topic.  But, the work appears to have caused something of an academic paradigm shift,” he said.

"The impact of Rawlsianism on the legal academy has been astronomical,” he said. “Thinking in contractualist terms is now second nature to legal academics. Rawlsian analysis has maintained its profound academic influence, even after 50 years.”

“I am proud, beyond words, to have made a contribution to this tradition and discussing that contribution at Harvard -- the birth place of Rawlsian thinking -- was a special honor.”

“The discussions helped galvanize my thinking and I was impressed by the high level of interest and engagement.” 

He continued, “It was a wonderful opportunity to show the world the work being done at MSU and contribute to the Law College’s academic profile.”