Draft:Stephen R. Munzer

Stephen R. Munzer (Wikipedia)

Stephen Roger Munzer (born February 2, 1944) is an American philosopher and legal educator best known for a rigorous pluralist approach to property law.

Education

 * B.A. University of Kansas 1966
 * B.Phil. in philosophy Oxford University 1969 (Rhodes Scholar)
 * J.D. Yale Law School 1972

Career
After earning a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1972, Munzer practiced law briefly as an associate at Covington & Burling. He moved into academia when he served as an assistant professor of philosophy at Rutgers University from 1974-1977. At the University of Minnesota Law School, Munzer became an associate and then full professor from 1977 to 1981. He spent the bulk of his career at the UCLA School of Law where he was a professor (1982-2003), distinguished professor (2003-2014), then Distinguished Research Professor (2014-present). Since 2014, Munzer has continued to research, write, and publish about law and philosophy as emeritus professor of law.

Much of Munzer’s work is on the moral, political and legal philosophy of property. He also writes extensively on jurisprudence, body modification, law and biotechnology, indigenous peoples, and the philosophy of religion. Munzer’s teaching career falls into two main categories: (1) large classes on contracts and property law and (2) small seminars on philosophical topics ranging from stem cell research to what it means to live a good life.

He was awarded a Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1991. From the American Philosophical Association he received the David Baumgardt Memorial Fellowship (1997-98) and the Berger Prize in the Philosophy of Law (1999). ​​He received the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2005 at UCLA.

Interests
Sports, monasteries, and the Aztecs.

Publications
Munzer has published three books and more than 65 articles.

Books

 * Legal Validity, Martinus Nijhoff, 1972
 * A Theory of Property, Cambridge University Press, 1990
 * New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property, Cambridge University Press, 2001 (edited collection)

Selected Articles

 * “Validity and Legal Conflicts,” Yale Law Journal, vol. 82, 1973
 * “Does the Constitution Mean What It Always Meant?”, Columbia Law Review, vol. 77, 1977 (with James W. Nickel)
 * “A Theory of Retroactive Legislation,” Texas Law Review, vol. 61, 1982
 * “Property, Incorporation, and Projection,” Noûs, vol. 23, 1989
 * “An Uneasy Case Against Property Rights in Body Parts,” Social Philosophy & Policy, vol. 11, 1994
 * “Beggars of God: The Christian Ideal of Mendicancy,” Journal of Religious Ethics, vol. 27, 1999
 * “Human-Nonhuman Chimeras in Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, vol. 21, 2007
 * “Cosmetic Surgery, Racial Identity, and Aesthetics,” Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science and Technology, vol. 19, 2011
 * “Innocence,” Faith and Philosophy, vol. 29, 2012
 * “Dam(n) Displacement: Compensation, Resettlement, and Indigeneity,” Cornell International Law Journal, vol. 51, 2019
 * “Temptation, Sinlessness, and Impeccability,” International Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 63, 2023

Updates
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