James R. Hackney
Dean and Professor of Law
Education
Yale University, JD 1989
Bio
James Hackney was appointed dean of Northeastern University School of Law on July 1, 2018; he joined the faculty in 1992. From 2013 to 2015, he served as the law school’s associate dean for entrepreneurial programs and research support. In that role, he launched the law school’s first online programs for non-lawyers, which focus on the increasing importance of law and regulations in such fields as health, human resources, intellectual property, privacy and compliance. After Northeastern President Aoun tapped him to become his chief of staff in 2016, Dean Hackney managed the president’s staff and worked closely with his top leadership team to devise university strategy. He was deeply involved in developing Northeastern 2025, the university’s academic plan. He also co-chairs the Presidential Council on Diversity and Inclusion.
Dean Hackney teaches and conducts research in the areas of intellectual history, torts, corporate finance, corporations, the mutual fund industry, law and economics, and theories of race in America. He is the author of two acclaimed books: Under Cover of Science: American Legal-Economic Theory and the Quest for Objectivity (Duke University Press, 2007) and Legal Intellectuals in Conversation: Reflections on the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory (New York University Press, 2012).
Prior to joining the Northeastern faculty, Dean Hackney was an associate with the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella. He was book review and comment editor of the Yale Law Journal during law school.
Fields of Expertise
- Corporate Law
- Economics and the Law
- Intellectual History
- Race and Racism and the Law
- Torts
Selected Works
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- Legal Intellectuals in Conversation: Reflections on the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory (New York University Press, 2012).
- Under Cover of Science: American Legal-Economic Theory and the Quest for Objectivity (Duke University Press, 2007).
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- “Regulating Through Financial Engineering: The Office Of Financial Research And Pull Of Models,” 50 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 695 (2019).
- “Guido Calabresi and the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory,” 77 Law and Contemporary Problems 45 (2014).
- “The Enlightenment and Financial Crisis of 2008: An Intellectual History of Corporate Finance Theory,” 54 Saint Louis University Law Journal 1257 (2010).
- Book Review: “On Markets and Regulation: Richard Posner’s Conservative Pragmatist Evolution,” 3 Law and Financial Markets Review 539 (2009).
- “Ideological Conflict, African American Reparations, Tort Causation and the Case for Social Welfare Transformation,” 84 Boston University Law Review 1193 (2004).
- “Law and Neoclassical Economics Theory: A Critical History of the Distribution/Efficiency Debate,” 32 Journal of Socio-Economics 361 (2003).
- “Law and Neoclassical Economics: Science, Politics and the Reconfiguration of American Tort Law Theory,” 15 Law and History Review 275 (1997).
- “The Intellectual Origins of American Strict Products Liability: A Case Study in American Pragmatic Instrumentalism,” 39 American Journal of Legal History 443 (1995).
- “A Proposal for State Funding of Municipal Tort Liability,” 98 Yale Law Journal 389 (1988).
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- “Oliver Wendell Holmes”, “Charles Sanders Peirce,” in Industrialization and Imperialism: 1800-1914, A Bibliographical Dictionary, ed. J. Bell (Greenwood Press, 2002).
- “Banking”, “Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation”, “Glass-Steagall Act,” in The Encyclopedia of the Great Depression and New Deal Vol. 1, ed. J. Ciment (M.E. Sharpe, 2001).
- “Duties of Fund Directors Under State Law,” in Fund Governance: Legal Duties of Investment Company Directors, ed. R. Robertson (Law Journal Press, 2005).
James R. Hackney
Dean and Professor of Law