Jan Ginter Deutsch (May 25, 1935 – May 19, 2016) was a Polish-born

American philosopher This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States. {, border="0" style="margin:auto;" class="toccolours" , - ! {{MediaWiki:Toc , - , style="text-ali ...

and legal scholar best known for his work on the

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

of corporate law,

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

, and the cultural underpinnings of

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

. Deutsch's most recent book, ''Power and Precedent'' (Vandeplas, 2007), is a summation of his work on

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

jurisprudence over the past few decades.

Biography

He was born in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Deutsch was a long-time professor in Yale Law School, and at the time of his death was Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law Emeritus and Professorial Lecturer at that school. He received a B.A. (

Alpheus Henry Snow Prize Alpheus Henry Snow (November 8, 1859 – August 19, 1920) was an American lawyer and scholarly investigator in the field of international law. Biography Snow was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, where he was a student at the Stevens High School ...

), Ph.D., and J.D. from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, after which he clerked with

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

justice

Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made major contributions to, among other areas, ...

. He practiced law at Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

from 1964 to 1966 (with future Supreme Court justice

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...

) before joining the Yale Law faculty in 1966. Deutsch's two most famous published works are ''Selling the People's Cadillac: The Edsel and Corporate Responsibility'' (Yale University Press, 1976), a diagnosis of social ills as seen through the lens of a failed automobile, and a 1969 article, "Neutrality, Legitimacy, and the Supreme Court: Some Intersections Between Law and Political Science," 20 Stan. L. Rev. 169, on fundamental rights vs. opinions. Former President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

wrote, in his autobiography, of Deutsch: "He was the only man I'd ever met who ate all of an apple, including the core. He said all the good minerals were there. He was smarter than I was, so I tried it. Once in a while, I still do, with fond memories of Professor Deutsch." Deutsch died on May 19, 2016, at the age of 80.

References

External links

Biography at Yale
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsch, Jan G. 1935 births 2016 deaths American people of Polish-Jewish descent American legal scholars Yale Law School faculty Yale Law School alumni American philosophers Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States 20th-century American lawyers

Biography

See also

References

External links