Biography

Barbara H. Fried’s scholarly interests lie at the intersection of law, economics, and philosophy. She has written extensively on questions of distributive justice, in the areas of tax policy, property theory and political theory. She is also the author of a path-breaking intellectual biography of Robert Hale, one of the leading legal realists. Professor Fried is a three-time winner of the John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching. She regularly teaches the Legal Studies Workshop at Stanford Law School, an interdisciplinary student-faculty workshop designed for law students interested in pursuing academic careers, as well as contracts, modern American legal thought, tax, and advanced seminars in law and moral/political theory. She has twice been a visiting professor of law at New York University Law School.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1987, Professor Fried practiced as an associate with the New York City law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and served as a law clerk to Judge J. Edward Lumbard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Key Works

• Barbara H. Fried, Left-Libertariansim: A Review Essay, 32 Philosophy and Public Affairs 66-92 (2004).
• Barbara H. Fried, 'If You Don't Like It, Leave It': The Problem of Exit in Social Contractarian Arguments, 31 Philosophy & Public Affairs 40-70 (Winter 2003). 31 pages.
• Barbara H. Fried, Ex Ante/Ex Post, 13 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 123-160 (2003).
• Barbara H. Fried, The Progressive Assault on Laissez Faire: Robert Hale and the First Law and Economics Movement, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998. 338 pages.
• Barbara H. Fried, Wilt Chamberlain Revisited: Nozick's 'Justice In Transfer' and the Problem of Market-Based Distribution, 24 Philosophy and Public Affairs 226-245 (Summer 1995).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Contracts
• Legal Studies Workshop
• Modern American Legal Thought
• Taxation I

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Barbara Fried, A Song of Longing and Elegy for Daniel, Two Stories, Guernica, April 15, 2012.
• Barbara H. Fried, The Unwritten Theory of Justice: Rawlsian Liberalism Versus Libertarianism in The Blackwell Companion to Rawls, Jon Mandle and David Reidy, editors, Blackwell, 2012; Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 1957828 (2011).
• Barbara H. Fried, The Holmesian Bad Man Flubs His Entrance, Suffolk University Law Review, Symposium on Contract as Promise at Thirty Years, Forthcoming; Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 1957835 (2011).
• Barbara H. Fried, The Limits of a Nonconsequentialist Approach to Torts, Legal Theory, Forthcoming; Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 1957467 (2011).
• Barbara H. Fried, What Does Matter? The Case for Killing the Trolley Problem (Or Letting it Die), Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 1781102 (2011).
• Barbara H. Fried, Does Nozick Have a Theory of Property Rights?, Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 1782031 (2011).
• Barbara H. Fried, Can Contractualism Save Us from Aggregation?, 16 Journal of Ethics 39 (2012). Previously Stanford Public Law Working Paper no. 1781092 (2011).
• Barbara H. Fried, Robert Lee Hale, in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, Roger K. Newman, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
• Barbara H. Fried, Punting Our Future: College Athletics and Admissions, Change, May/June 2007, pg. 8.
• Barbara H. Fried, What's Morality Got to Do With It? 120 Harvard Law Review 53 (2007).

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Board of Advisors, Stanford Ethics in Society Program
• Review Editor, Philosophy and Public Affairs
• Affiliate, Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality

Honors and Awards

• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1991, 2000, 2006