Jules L. Coleman, a specialist on both law and philosophy, has been named the Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence by vote of the Yale Corporation.
A member of the Law School faculty since 1986, Coleman has focused his research and teaching in the areas of torts, jurisprudence, evidence, law and economics, rational choice and law, political/legal theory, ethics, social philosophy, political economy, public choice and rational choice. He has authored or coauthored three books -- "Risks and Wrongs," "Philosophy of Law: An Introduction to Jurisprudence" and "Markets, Morals and the Law"-- and has edited or coedited six others, including five volumes of "Outstanding Essays in Philosophy of Law," two volumes of "Economic Analysis of the Law" and "Philosophy and Law." He is also series editor of "Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law" and editor of the Law School publication "Legal Theory."
Coleman earned his B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University and his M.S.L. from the Yale Law School in 1976. Before joining the Yale faculty, he taught for five years at the University of Arizona and for eight years at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He has also taught at both the Santa Barbara and Berkeley campuses of the University of California and at Brooklyn College.
Coleman was a visiting professor at Yale in the year before he joined the faculty as professor of law and philosophy of the social sciences and lecturer in political science. In 1990, he was appointed the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence.
His numerous honors include a Distinguished Alumni Award from Brooklyn College and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has been president of the Council for Philosophical Studies since 1984, and has been invited to give named or endowed lectureships at universities throughout the United States and in England.