معرفی
John C.P. Goldberg is the Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he has been a faculty member since 2008. Previously, he served as a faculty member at Vanderbilt Law School from 2005 to 2008, where he was Associate Dean for Research. He held the Eli Goldston Professorship of Law from 2012 to 2018 and the Carter Professorship of General Jurisprudence from 2018 to 2025. Goldberg served as Deputy Dean from 2017 to 2022 and as Interim Dean from 2024 to 2025.
Goldberg earned his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1991, after which he clerked for Judge Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York and for Supreme Court Justice Byron White. He received his B.A. with high honors from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, as well as an M. Phil. in Politics from Oxford University and an M.A. in Politics from Princeton University. Before joining Vanderbilt Law School, he briefly practiced law in Boston.
As an expert in tort law, tort theory, and political philosophy, Goldberg has made significant contributions to legal scholarship. He is co-author of Recognizing Wrongs (Harvard University Press 2020), a leading casebook Tort Law: Responsibilities and Redress (5th ed. 2021), and The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Torts (2010), along with dozens of articles in scholarly journals. His research focuses on civil recourse theory, which positions tort law as a system for wronged individuals to seek redress directly from those who have wronged them, rather than as a mechanism for corrective justice or economic deterrence.
Goldberg's publications reveal consistent engagement with the philosophical foundations of tort law, exploring concepts like civil wrongs, relational duty, and the moral significance of risking. His work often challenges conventional understandings of tort doctrine while maintaining a focus on the plaintiff's right to recourse against the defendant who has wronged them. Recent publications continue this trajectory while addressing contemporary issues in products liability, negligence, and the theoretical underpinnings of private law.
- 2024 Hart-Dworkin Award from the AALS Jurisprudence Section (with Benjamin Zipursky)
- 2023 William L. Prosser Award from the AALS Torts and Compensation Systems Section (with Benjamin Zipursky)
Goldberg serves as an Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute's Fourth Restatement of Property and as an advisor to the Third Restatement of Torts. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Tort Law and Legal Theory, and previously chaired the Torts and Compensation Systems Section of the Association of American Law Schools in 2009. He has received multiple teaching prizes for his instruction in first-year and upper-level courses at Harvard Law School.
