Tonja Jacobi
Phone: (312) 503-1458
E-mail: t-jacobi@law.northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Related Links: Working Papers
Tonja Jacobi is a Professor of Law, having joined Northwestern Law School in 2004. Jacobi earned her PhD in political science from Stanford University, where she wrote her dissertation on separation of powers constraints on the judiciary. She also holds a Masters from the University of California, Berkeley and a law degree from the Australian National University. Her areas of interest include judicial politics, game theory, American governmental institutions and constitutional law. Her current projects include an empirical assessment of the ideological nature of intellectual property cases, a survey of public choice as applied to the judiciary, and a formal model of judicial-congressional interactions in constitutional issues.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
- Judicial Politics
- Game Theory
- American Democracy
- Constitutional Law
- Legislation
COURSES
PUBLICATIONS
Representative Publications
- The Judicial Signalling Game: How Judges Strategically Shape Their Dockets, SUPREME COURT ECONOMIC REVIEW, forthcoming 2007
- The Dissent Becomes the Majority: Using Federalism to Transform Coalitions in the US Supreme Court (with Vanessa Baird)
- The Impact of Positive Political Theory on Old Questions of Constitutional Law and the Separation of Powers, Northwestern University Law Review Centenary Edition, forthcoming 2006
Recent Publications
- The Judicial Signaling Game: How Judges Strategically Shape Their Dockets, SUPREME COURT ECONOMIC REVIEW , 2008
- Acknowledging Guilt: Forcing Self-Identification in Post-Conviction DNA Testing , NORTHWESTER UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW, 2008
- How Massachusetts Got Gay Marriage: The Intersection of Popular Opinion, Legislative Action, and Judicial Power , JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY LEGAL ISSUES, 2006
- Legal Doctrine and Political Control , JOURNAL OF LAW, ECONOMICS, & ORGANIZATION , 2007
- Cruel and Unusual Punishment , The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, 2006
JOINT APPOINTMENTS
EDUCATION
- BA with honors, LLB with honors, Australian National University
- MA, University of California Berkeley
- PhD, Stanford University
PRIOR APPOINTMENTS
- Lecturer, 2003, Teaching Assistant, 2001-2002, Stanford University
- Research Assistant, University of California, Berkeley, 2000
- Teaching Assistant, University of Canberra Law School, fall 1999

