Washington University, St. Louis, B.A.
Harvard University, J.D.
Balliol College, Oxford University, D.Phil.
Professor Brian Bix joined the faculty in 2001. He teaches in the areas of jurisprudence, family law, and contract law. He holds a joint appointment with the Department of Philosophy.
Professor Bix received his B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Washington University in St. Louis in 1983; his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1986; and his D.Phil. in Law from Balliol College, Oxford University, in 1991. Professor Bix taught at Quinnipiac University School of Law, as Associate Professor (1995-1997) and Professor (1998-2001). He was a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center during the spring semester of 2000 and at George Washington University Law School in the fall of 1999. Professor Bix was the Lecturer in Jurisprudence and Legal Reasoning at King's College, University of London, from 1991 to 1993; he taught at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, from 1989 to 1990. He was a law clerk for Justice Benjamin Kaplan at the Massachusetts Appeals Court (1993-95, while on leave from the King's College), and he also clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1987-1988), and Justice Alan Handler, New Jersey Supreme Court (1986-1987). He is a member of the American Law Institute.
For further information on Professor Bix, please consult his curriculum vitae.
Family Law (The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law) (Oxford University Press, 2013)
Contract Law: Rules, Theory, and Context (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy and Law) (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Jurisprudence: Theory and Context, (Sweet & Maxwell (UK), Carolina Academic Press (US), 1st ed., 1996; 2d ed., 1999; 3d ed., 2003; 4th ed., 2006; 5th ed., 2009; 6th ed., 2012); translated into Chinese (Law Press, 2007), Greek (Kritiki Publications, 2007), and Spanish (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2010)
Rights: Concepts and Contexts (Ashgate Publishing, 2012) (co-editor with Horacio Spector)
Family Law: Cases, Text, Problems (LexisNexis, 5th ed., 2010) (with Ira M. Ellman, Paul Kurtz, Lois A. Weithorn, Karen Czapanskiy & Maxine Eichner)
Reprint of Jerome Frank, Law and the Modern Mind (Transaction Publishers, 2009) (editor)
Family Law: Cases, Text, Problems (LexisNexis, 4th ed., 2004) (Supp. 2008) (with Ira M. Ellman, Paul Kurtz, Elizabeth Scott & Lois A. Weithorn)
Lenguaje, Teoria y Derecho (Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2008) (collection of previously published essays, translated into Spanish, with a new introduction)
Jurisprudence: Cases and Materials (LexisNexis, 2d ed., 2006) (co-editor with Stephen Gottlieb, Timothy Lytton & Robin West)
Philosophy of Law: Critical Concepts in Philosophy (vols. I-IV) (Routledge, 2006) (editor)
Teoria del Derecho: Ambicion y Limites (Marcial Pons, 2006) (collection of previously published essays, translated into Spanish, with a new introduction)
Law and Morality (Ashgate, 2005) (co-editor with Kenneth Einar Himma)
A Dictionary of Legal Theory (Oxford University Press, 2004); translated into Chinese (Law Press, 2007) and Spanish (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2010)
Contract Law (vols. I and II) (International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series, Ashgate, 2000) (editor)
Analyzing Law: New Essays in Legal Theory (Oxford University Press, 1998) (editor)
Law, Language, and Legal Determinacy (Oxford University Press, 1993); translated into Chinese (Law Press, 2007); Chapter 2 reprinted in Wittgenstein and Law (Dennis Patterson, ed., Ashgate, 2004)
Book Chapters
Linguistic Meaning and Legal Truth, in Law and Language 34-44 (Michael Freeman & Fiona Smith, eds., Oxford University Press, 2013)
Radbruch's Formula, Conceptual Analysis, and the Rule of Law, in Law, Liberty, and the Rule of Law 65-75 (Imer B. Flores & Kenneth E. Himma, eds., Springer, 2013)
The Role of Contract: Stewart Macaulay's Lessons from Practice, in Revisiting the Contracts Scholarship of Stewart Macaulay: On the Empirical and the Lyrical 241-255 (Jean Braucher, John Kidwell & William Whitford, eds., Hart Publishing, 2013)
Defeasibility and Open Texture, in The Logic of Legal Requirements: Essays on Defeasibility 193-201 (Jordi Ferrer Beltran & Giovanni Battista Ratti, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
Ideales, Practicas y Conceptos en la Teoria del Derecho [Ideals, Practices, and Concepts in Legal Theory] (translated into Spanish by Pablo E. Navarro), in Neutralidad y teoria del derecho [Neutrality and Theory of Law] 343-360 (Jordi Ferrer Beltran, Jose Juan Moreso & Diego M. Papayannis, eds., Marcial Pons, 2012)
Introduction, in Rights: Concepts and Contexts xi-xx (Brian Bix & Horacio Spector, eds., Ashgate Publishing, 2012) (with Horacio Spector)
John Austin and Constructing Theories of Law, in The Legacy of John Austin's Jurisprudence 1-13 (M. D. A. Freeman & Patricia M. Mindus, eds., Springer, 2012), earlier version published at 24 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 431 (2011)
Legal Interpretation and the Philosophy of Language, in Oxford Handbook of Language and Law 145-155 (Peter M. Tiersma & Lawrence M. Solan, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
Pluralism and Decentralization in Marriage Regulation, in Marriage and Divorce in a Multicultural Context: Multi-Tiered Marriage and the Boundaries of Civil Law and Religion 60-77 (Joel A. Nichols, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Constitutions, Originalism, and Meaning, in The Challenge of Originalism: Theories of Constitutional Interpretation 285-299 (Grant Huscroft & Bradley W. Miller, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Contracts, in The Ethics of Consent: Theory and Practice 251-279 (Franklin G. Miller & Alan Wertheimer, eds., Oxford University Press, 2010)
Legal Reasoning, the Rule of Law and Legal Theory, in The Hart-Fuller Debate in the Twenty-First Century 281-287 (Peter Cane, ed., Hart, 2010)
Natural Law Theory, in A Companion to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory 211-227 (Dennis Patterson, ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2d ed., 2010)
Will versus Reason: Truth in Natural Law, Positive Law, and Legal Theory, in Truth: Studies of a Robust Presence 208-231 (Kurt Pritzl, ed., Catholic University of America Press, 2010)
Introduction, in Jerome Frank, Law & the Modern Mind (Transaction Publishers, 2009), reprinted in Classic Writings in Law and Society (A. Javier Trevino, ed., 2d ed. revised and expanded, Transaction Publishers, 2011)
Law and Economics and Explanation in Contract Law, in Theoretical Foundations of Law and Economics 203-213 (Mark D. White, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2009)
On Philosophy in American Law: Analytical Legal Philosophy, in On Philosophy in American Law 99-105 (Francis J. Mootz III, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2009), translated into Chinese, Archives for Legal Philosophy and Sociology of Law, vol. 14 (Yong Liu Zheng ed., Peking University Press, 2009)
The American and Scandinavian Legal Realists on the Nature of Norms, in Uppsala-Minnesota Colloquium: Law, Culture and Values 85-100 (Mattias Dahlberg, ed., Iustus, 2009)
The Role of Legal Theory in Law and Justice (in English and translated into Turkish), in Ankara Barosu Uluslarasrasi Hukuk Kurultayi, vol. 1, 82-99 (Ankara Barosu Baskanligi, 2009)
Legal Philosophy in America, in The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy 551-577 (Cheryl Misak, ed., Oxford University Press, 2008)
The Problem of Persuasion: A Comment on Linda McClain's The Place of Families, in Family Law: Balancing Interests and Pursuing Priorities 20-27 (Lynn D. Wardle & Camille S. Williams, eds., William S. Hein & Co., 2007)
Universal Theory in Family Law, in Family Law: Balancing Interests and Pursuing Priorities 28-34 (Lynn D. Wardle & Camille S. Williams, eds., William S. Hein & Co., 2007)
Introduction, in 1 Philosophy of Law: Critical Concepts in Philosophy 1-18 (Brian Bix, ed., Routledge, 2006)
Reductionism and Explanation in Legal Theory, in Properties of Law: Essays in Honour of Jim Harris 43-51 (Timothy Endicott, Joshua Getzler & Ed Peel, eds., Oxford University Press, 2006)
The ALI Principles and Agreements: Seeking a Balance Between Status and Contract, in Reconceiving the Family: Critique on the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution 372-391 (Robin Fretwell Wilson, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Cautions and Caveats for the Application of Wittgenstein to Legal Theory, in Law and Social Justice: Topics in Contemporary Philosophy 217-229 (Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke & David Shier, eds., MIT Press, 2005)
Introduction, in Law and Morality xi-xvii (Brian Bix & Kenneth Einar Himma, eds., Ashgate, 2005)
Some Reflections on Methodology in Jurisprudence, in Problemas contemporáneos de la filosofía del derecho 67-96 (Enrique Caceres, Imer B. Flores, Javier Saldañq & Enrique Villanueva, eds., UNAM, 2005); translated into Italian, 8 Ars Interpretandi 397 (2003); translated into Spanish, 26 Doxa 609 (2003)
Natural Law Theory: The Modern Tradition, in The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law 62-103 (Jules L. Coleman & Scott Shapiro, eds., Kenneth Einar Himma, assoc. ed., Oxford University Press, 2002), reprinted in Philosophy of Law (Joel Feinberg & Jules Coleman, eds., Wadsworth, 6th ed., 2000 & 7th ed., 2004); translated into Turkish, 6 Dokuz Eylul University Law Faculty Journal 291-343 (2004)
Reflections on the Nature of Marriage, in Revitalizing the Institution of Marriage for the 21st Century 111-119 (Alan J. Hawkins, Lynn D. Wardle & David Orgon Coolidge, eds., Greenwood Press, 2002)
Economic Analysis of Law, in 1 The Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences 418-419 (Jonathan Michie, ed., Routledge, 2001)
Natural Law Theory, in 2 The Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences 1100-1101 (Jonathan Michie, ed., Routledge, 2001)
Introduction, in I & II Contract Law (International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd series) (Brian Bix, ed., Ashgate, 2000)
On Description and Legal Reasoning, in Rules and Reasoning 7-28 (Linda Meyer, ed., Hart Publishing, 1999)
Natural Law Theory, in A Companion to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory 223-240 (Dennis Patterson, ed., Blackwell Press, 1996), excerpted in The Philosophy of Law (Joel Feinberg & Jules Coleman, eds., Wadsworth Publishing, 7th ed., 2004)
Questions in Legal Interpretation, in Law and Interpretation 137-54 (Andrei Marmor, ed., Oxford University Press, 1995), reprinted in 18 Tel Aviv University Law Review 463 (1994) (in Hebrew); translated into Chinese (Law Press, 2006)
Journal Articles
A New Uniform Law for Premarital and Marital Agreements, 46 Family Law Quarterly 313 (2012) (with Barbara A. Atwood)
The Nature of Law and Reasons for Action, 5 Problema 399 (2012)
Theories of Contract Law and Enforcing Promissory Morality: Comments on Charles Fried, 45 Suffolk University Law Review 719 (2012)
Private Ordering and Family Law, 23 Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers 249 (2010), excerpted in Judith Areen, Marc Spindelman & Philomila Tsoukala, Family Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 6th ed., 2012)
Global Error and Legal Truth, 29 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 535 (2009)
Ross and Olivecrona on Rights, 34 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 103 (2009), reprinted in Rights: Concepts and Contexts (Brian Bix & Horacio Spector, eds., Ashgate Publishing, 2012); translated into Portuguese, 2:13 Panoptica 199 (July 2008)
Perfectionist Policies in Family Law, 2007 University of Illinois Law Review 1055 (2007) (reviewing Linda McClain, The Place of Families: Fostering Capacity, Equality, and Responsibility (Harvard University Press, 2006))
Some Reflections on Contract Law Theory, 1 Problema 143 (2007)
Robert Alexy, Radbruch's Formula, and the Nature of Legal Theory, 37 Rechtstheorie 139 (2006), translated into Portuguese, 2:12 Panoptica 70 (Mar. 2008)
Diverging Perspectives on Electronic Contracting in the U.S. and EU, 54 Cleveland State Law Review 175 (2006) (with Jane K. Winn)
State Interest and Marriage: The Theoretical Perspective, 32 Hofstra Law Review 93 (2003), reprinted in 18 Minnesota Family Law Journal 1-12 (Nov./Dec. 2004)
An Outsider's Guide to Natural Law Theory, 1 American Philosophical Association Newsletter 126 (Fall 2001)
How to Plot Love on an Indifference Curve, 99 Michigan Law Review 1439 (2001) (reviewing June Carbone, From Partners to Parents: The Second Revolution in Family Law (Columbia University Press, 2000)), reprinted in The Economics of Family Law (Margaret F. Brinig, ed., Edward Elgar, 2007)
On the Dividing Line Between Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism, 75 Notre Dame Law Review 1613 (2000), reprinted in Law and Morality (Kenneth Einar Himma & Brian Bix, eds., Ashgate, 2005), and in Kenneth Einar Himma, The Nature of Law: Philosophical Issues in Conceptual Jurisprudence and the Legal Theory (Foundation Press, 2011); translated into Russian, 2 Russian Yearbook of Legal Theory (2009)
Patrolling the Boundaries: Inclusive Legal Positivism and the Nature of Jurisprudential Debate, 12 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 17 (1999), reprinted in David M. Adams, Philosophical Problems in Law (Wadsworth, 4th ed., 2005)
Positively Positivism, 85 Virginia Law Review 889 (1999) (reviewing Anthony J. Sebok, Legal Positivism in American Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press, 1998))
H.L.A. Hart and the "Open Texture" of Language, 10 Law and Philosophy 51 (1991)
The Application (and Mis-Application) of Wittgenstein's Rule-Following Considerations to Legal Theory, 3 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 107 (1990), reprinted in Wittgenstein and Legal Theory 209-223 (Dennis Patterson, ed., Westview Press, 1992); translated into Korean, 15(3) Yonsei Law Review 235 (2005) (Kyung-Hwi Kwon, trans.)
Dancing in the Dark: The Philosophical Moves of Ronald Dworkin, 23 Harvard Journal on Legislation 307 (1986) (reviewing Ronald Dworkin, A Matter of Principle (Harvard University Press, 1985))
Book Review, 31 Law and Philosophy (forthcoming, 2012) (reviewing Christopher J. Peters, A Matter of Dispute: Morality, Democracy, and Law (Oxford University Press, 2011))
Law, Plans, and Reasons for Action, 122 Ethics 444 (2012) (reviewing Scott Shapiro, Legality (Harvard University Press, 2011))
Book Review, 12 Journal of International Economic Law 1067 (2009) (reviewing Fiona Smith, Agriculture and the WTO: Towards A New Theory of International Agricultural Trade Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2009))
Book Review, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (Mar. 2008) (reviewing Howard Schweber, The Language of Liberal Constitutionalism (Cambridge University Press, 2007))
Book Review, 48 Philosophical Books 285 (2007) (reviewing Larry Alexander, Is There a Right of Freedom of Expression? (Cambridge University Press, 2005))
Book Review, 117 Ethics 124 (2006) (reviewing Peter Cane, Responsibility in Law and Morality (Hart, 2002))
Book Review, 48 American Journal of Legal History 457 (2006) (reviewing George W. Liebmann, The Common Law Tradition: A Collective Portrait of Five Legal Scholars (Transaction Publishers, 2005))
Book Review, 1 International Journal of Law in Context 115 (2005) (reviewing Roger Cotterrell, The Politics of Jurisprudence: A Critical Introduction to Legal Philosophy (Lexis Nexis UK, 2d ed., 2003))
Book Review, 46 Philosophical Books 93 (2005) (reviewing Philosophy and the Law of Torts (Gerald J. Postema, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2001))
Book Review, 28 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 231 (2003) (reviewing Julie Dickson, Evaluation and Legal Theory (Hart, 2001))
Book Review, 65 Modern Law Review 305 (2002) (reviewing Cross Currents: Family Law and Policy in the United States and England (Sanford N. Katz, John Eekelaar & Mavis Maclean, eds., Oxford University Press, 2000))
Practical Judging, 19 Constitutional Commentary 453 (2002) (reviewing Richard H. Fallon, Jr., Implementing the Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2001))
Book Review, 19 Philosophy in Review 318 (1999) (reviewing Rational Commitment and Social Justice: Essays for Gregory Kavka (Jules L. Coleman & Christopher W. Morris, eds., Cambridge University Press, 1998))
Book Review, 40 Philosophical Books 277 (1999) (reviewing Anthony Sebok, Legal Positivism in American Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press, 1998))
Book Review, 18 Philosophy in Review 143 (1998) (reviewing James E. Penner, The Idea of Property in Law (Oxford University Press, 1997))
Book Review, 107 Ethics 394 (1997) (reviewing Richard Dien Winfield, Law in Civil Society (University Press of Kansas, 1995))
Book Review, 37 Philosophical Books 131 (1996) (reviewing Ernest Weinrib, The Idea of Private Law (Harvard University Press, 1995))
The Whirl of Paradox, 9 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 223 (1996) (reviewing Matthew Kramer, Critical Legal Theory and the Challenge of Feminism: A Philosophical Reconception (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995))
Recent Publication, 22 Harvard Journal on Legislation 620 (1985) (reviewing Michael J. Detmold, The Unity of Law and Morality: A Refutation of Legal Positivism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984))
John Austin, in International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Hugh LaFollette, ed., Blackwell, 2013)
John Austin, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2001) (rev. eds. 2005, 2010), translated into Chinese, 1 Beihang Law Review 15 (2010); earlier version translated into Korean, 4 Sunmoon University Law Review (2007)
Legal Theory-Types and Purposes, IVR Encyclopaedia of Jurisprudence, Legal Theory, and Philosophy of Law (Aleksander Peczenik, gen. ed., 2004); in Spanish (Isonomia, 2005); edited version in Russian, in Jurisprudence in Search of Identity: A Collection of Articles and Translations (Sergei Kasatkin, ed., Samara Academy of
Humanities, 2010)
Joseph Raz, in The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia 719-720 (Christopher Gray, ed., Garland Publishing, 1999)
Richard Posner, in The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia 665-666 (Christopher Gray, ed., Garland Publishing, 1999)
Ronald Dworkin, in The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia 233-235 (Christopher Gray, ed., Garland Publishing, 1999)
Other Publications
Creating Norms, Jotwell (Apr. 2011) (reviewing Jody Kraus, Personal Sovereignty and Normative Power Skepticism, 109 Columbia Law Review Sidebar 126 (2009))
Theory in a World of Legal Rules, Academic News (Sweet & Maxwell, Spring 2009)
Response to John Witte, Jr., More Than a Mere Contract: Marriage as Contract and Covenant in Law and Theology, University of Chicago Religion and Culture Web Forum (May 2008)
http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/052008/
