Louise Weinberg

Louise and Steven Weinberg with Queen Beatrix in 1983

Louise Weinberg is Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law, in Austin, Texas, where she holds the endowed William B. Bates Chair for the Administration of Justice (formerly held by Charles Alan Wright). She is also a Fellow of the endowed Charles Alan Wright Chair. She teaches and writes in the fields of constitutional law and federal courts, and teaches the Supreme Court Seminar originated by Wright. She has also taught and written in the fields of conflict of laws and admiralty.

Weinberg was born in New York. She received her bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University summa cum laude, and has two degrees from Harvard Law School. She clerked for Hon. Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., and was an associate in litigation with Bingham, Dana & Gould (now Bingham, McCutchen) in Boston, Massachusetts. She has taught at Harvard Law School, Brandeis University, Suffolk Law School, and Stanford Law School. She is a member of the American Law Institute, The Philosophical Society of Texas, and Phi Beta Kappa, and has served as a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum, Davos. Over time, Weinberg has chaired three different sections of the Association of American Law Schools (the law professors’ learned society): the sections on Admiralty, on the Conflict of Laws (twice), and on Federal Courts (twice). A public speaker, Weinberg recently appeared in the Public Broadcasting Service's four-part series, “The Supreme Court.”

Louise Weinberg (born Goldwasser) is married to Steven Weinberg, the physicist and 1979 Nobel laureate. They live in Austin, Texas and have one child.

Writings

Weinberg’s current and recent writings in constitutional law include such law-review articles as "A General Theory of Governance" (William & Mary Law Review 2012); "Unlikely Beginnings of Modern Constitutional Thought" (University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 2012); Overcoming Dred (Constitutional Commentary 2007); Dred Scott and the Crisis of 1860 (Symposium, Chicago-Kent Law Review 2007); Our Marbury (Virginia Law Review 2003); and When Courts Decide Elections: The Constitutionality of Bush v. Gore (Symposium, Boston University Law Review 2002).

In the field of federal courts, Weinberg is author of Federal Courts: Judicial Federalism and Judicial Power (West Publishing Company 1994). Her recent articles in this field include Back to the Future: The New General Common Law, (Symposium, Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce 2004); Of Sovereignty and Union: The Legends of Alden (Notre Dame Law Review 2001); and The Article III Box, (Texas Law Review 2000). She contributed the entry on United States Federal Courts for the Encyclopedia of Legal History (Oxford University Press 2009).

In the field of conflict of laws, Weinberg is co-author, with William Richman and William Reynolds, of The Conflict of Laws (Matthew Bender 1990) (2d ed., 2002). Her recent writings in this field include Theory Wars in the Conflict of Laws (Michigan Law Review 2005).

Weinberg has also worked in legal theory and jurisprudence, contributing Of Theory and Theodicy: The Problem of Immoral Law (Law and Justice in a Multistate World, S. Symeonides ed. 2002) and Choosing Law, Giving Justice (Symposium, Louisiana Law Review 2000).

Louise Weinberg has written Federal Common Law (Northwestern Law Review 1989) and The New Judicial Federalism (Stanford Law Review 1977), and Holmes’ Failure (Michigan Law Review 1997) and Against Comity (Georgetown Law Journal 1991). Her pieces for the general public have appeared in The American Scholar, The Public Interest, and Daedalus, including Is It All Right to Read Trollope? (The American Scholar 1993).

External links

• Louise Weinberg's faculty profile page at the University of Texas School of Law.