James Gordley is W. R. Irby Distinguished University Professor at Tulane Law School, and Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at the Berkeley Law School. He is a Fellow of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Corresponding Fellow of The British Academy and a membre titulaire of the Académie internationale du droit comparé. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow. He is the author of numerous books and articles including The Jurists: A Critical History (2013), Foundations of Private Law (2006), and The Philosophical Origins of Modern Contract Doctrine (1991).