Biography

Directs Masters Program in International Economic Law, Business and Policy; Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Stanford Center for International Development

A leading expert on the application of economics to legal problems, Alan Sykes has focused his research on international economic relations. His writing and teaching have encompassed international trade, torts, contracts, insurance, antitrust, and economic analysis of law. He has been a member of the executive committee and the board of the American Law and Economics Association, and he currently serves as reporter for the American Law Institute Project on Principles of Trade Law: The World Trade Organization. Professor Sykes is associate editor of the Journal of International Economic Law and a member of the board of editors of the World Trade Review. He formerly served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies and the Journal of Law and Economics.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2006, Professor Sykes was the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he also served as faculty director of curriculum. He is a former National Science Foundation graduate fellow in the Department of Economics at Yale University. He is a senior fellow (by courtesy) with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and the Stanford Center for International Development.

Key Works

• John H. Jackson, William J. Davey and Alan O. Sykes, Legal Problems of International Economic Relations : Cases, Materials, and Text on the National and International Regulation of Transnational Economic Relations, 4th ed., St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002.
• Daniel R. Fischel and Alan O. Sykes, Corporate Crime, 25 Journal of Legal Studies 319 (1996). Reprinted in Milestones in Management, v. 10: Management and Law, Felix Ehrat and Eric Stupp, eds., Basel: Helbing and Lichtenhan, 2003.
• Alan O. Sykes, Product Standards for Internationally Integrated Goods Markets, Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution, 1995.
• Alan O. Sykes, Protectionism as a "Safeguard": A Positive Analysis of the GATT "Escape Clause" with Normative Speculations, 58 University of Chicago Law Review 255 (1991).
• Alan O. Sykes, The Economics of Vicarious Liability, 93 Yale Law Journal 1231 (1984).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• International Trade Regulation
• Law, Economics and Politics of International Trade
• Social Science and International Institutions
• Torts

Programs

• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Eric A. Posner and Alan O. Sykes, Economic Foundations of the Law of the Sea, Chicago and Stanford John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper no. 504 (2d series) (December 2009).
• Robert W. Staiger and Alan O. Sykes, International Trade and Domestic Regulation, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 387 / NBER Working Paper, No. 15541 (November 2009).
• Alan O. Sykes, Optimal Sanctions in the WTO: The Case for Decoupling (and the Uneasy Case for the Status Quo), Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 379 (August 2009).
• Douglas A. Irwin, Petros C. Mavroidis and Alan O. Sykes, The Genesis of GATT, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Alan O. Sykes, Safeguards, in The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy, Kenneth A. Reinert and Ramkishen S. Rajan, eds., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
• Robert W. Staiger and Alan O. Sykes, 'Currency Manipulation' and World Trade, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 363 (August 2008).
• Alan O. Sykes, Transnational Forum Shopping as a Trade and Investment Issue, 37 Journal of Legal Studies 339 (June 2008).
• Alan O. Sykes and Chad Bown, Commentary on United States - Final Antidumping Duties on Softwood Lumber from Canada (prepared for the American Institute Project on Principles of World Trade Law), World Trade Law Review (forthcoming 2008).
• Alan O. Sykes, Strict Liability Versus Negligence in Indiana Harbor (Special Issue Commemorating Twenty-Five Years of Judge Richard A. Posner), 74 University of Chicago Law Review 1911 (2007).
• Alvin K. Klevorick and Alan O. Sykes, United States Courts and the Optimal Deterrence of International Cartels: A Welfarist Perspective on Empagran, in Antitrust Stories, Eleanor M. Fox and Daniel A. Crane, eds., New York: Foundation Press, September 2007.