Samuel Issacharoff
- Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law
- samuel.issacharoff@nyu.edu
- Vanderbilt Hall 411J • 212.998.6580
AREAS OF RESEARCH
Civil Procedure and Complex Litigation, Class Action Practice in the U.S., Comparative Constitutional Governance, Comparative Constitutional Law, Complex Litigation and Class Actions, Constitutional Law, Law and economic analyses of procedure and constitutionalism, Law and Economics, The Law of Democracy, The Law of the Political Process
Samuel Issacharoff’s wide-ranging research deals with issues in civil procedure (especially complex litigation and class actions), law and economics, American and comparative constitutional law, and employment law. He is one of the pioneers in the law of the political process; his Law of Democracy casebook (co-authored with Stanford Law School’s Pam Karlan and NYU School of Law’s Richard Pildes) and dozens of articles have helped create this vibrant new area of constitutional law. In addition to ongoing involvement in some of the front-burner cases involving mass harms, he served as the reporter for the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation of the American Law Institute. Issacharoff is a 1983 graduate of Yale Law School. He began his teaching career in 1989 at the University of Texas, where he held the Joseph D. Jamail Centennial Chair in Law. In 1999, Issacharoff moved to Columbia Law School, where he was the Harold R. Medina Professor in Procedural Jurisprudence. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Fragile Democracies
Courses
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Complex Litigation
This is an advanced procedure course covering disputes in which the ordinary assumptions of the civil procedural system prove inadequate or otherwise unsatisfactory. We will focus generally on problems arising from the aggregation of claims, including preclusion, choice of law, and jurisdiction. The course gives particular attention to class actions and also to multidistrict litigation practice. We will consider what attributes of disputes mark them as complex cases, the kinds of strategic choices available to lawyers handling these cases, and the economics of settlement. We will also discuss the role of bankruptcy and other schemes in resolving complex litigation.
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Constitutional Democracies Colloquium
This class will review constitutional structures of democracy in a variety of countries. We will have presentations by visitors in about half the classes, including judges from constitutional courts around the world. The focus will be constitutional oversight of democracy, judicial review of the structure of the political process, and the way modern constitutions are used to stabilize democratic regimes.
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Furman Scholars Seminar
A research seminar for the Furman scholars. Spring semester consists of student paper presentations.
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Procedure
This course examines the rules governing civil litigation, with an emphasis on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Constitutional issues relating to jurisdiction and procedural protections are also considered.
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The Law of Democracy
This course covers the law regulating the political process, with a primary focus on constitutional law. The basic areas include individual rights of access to participation, the problem of group-based exclusion with particular emphasis on race-based denial of the franchise, and structural problems such as campaign finance, redistricting, the role of associations such as political parties, and the vulnerabilities revealed in Bush v. Gore. The course will address primarily American law but will integrate a significant amount of comparative materials.
Publications
- "Fragile Democracies," 120 Harv. L. Rev. 1405 (2007)
- Party Funding and Campaign Finance In International Perspective (Hart Publishing, 2006) (ed. with Keith Ewing)
- "Governance and Legitimacy in the Law of Class Actions," 1999 Sup. Ct. Rev. 337
Education
- JD, Yale Law School, 1983
- BA (History), Binghamton University, 1975
Honors and Activities
- Podell Distinguished Teaching Award, New York University School of Law, 2009
- Wiilis L. M. Reese Prize for Teaching, Columbia Law School, 2004
- Fellow, American Academy Arts & Sciences, 2003
- Texas Excellence Teaching Award in the School of Law, University of Texas, 1994
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