Today in History: Senate Confirms Posner

On this date, November 24, 1981, the U.S. Senate confirmed 42-year-old Richard Allen Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Given the fact that he had written the book The Economics of Contract Law with Anthony Kronman in 1978, it’s not surprising he would go on to be probably the most influential judge in contract law issues at least since Roger Traynor, and perhaps since Benjamin Cardozo. For a mano-a-mano slugfest between Posner and Cardozo, see Larry Cunningham’s Cardozo and Posner: A Study in Contracts.

[Frank Snyder]