Paul A. Gowder
Professor of Law
Biography
Paul Gowder joined the Northwestern Law faculty in 2020. His research focuses on the rule of law, democratic theory, social and racial equality, institutional and organizational governance, and the law of technology, as well as the technology of law. He has taught a variety of classes including constitutional law, torts, critical race theory, professional responsibility, and introductory programming and statistics for law students. In his practice days, he was a civil rights and legal aid lawyer. In those contexts, he represented victims of police misconduct (once winning a rare qualified immunity reversal from the Fourth Circuit), predatory lending, employment discrimination, unlawful eviction, domestic violence, and numerous other injustices.
Areas of Expertise
- Technology Law
- Political, Moral, and Legal Philosophy
- Constitutional Law
Selected Publications
- The Rule Of Law In The Real World (2016).
- Reconstituting We the People: Frederick Douglass and Jürgen Habermas in Conversation, 114 Northwestern University Law Review 335 (2019).
- Transformative Legal Technology and the Rule of Law, 68 University of Toronto Law Journal (Supp. 1, 2018).
- Resisting the Rule of Men, 62 Saint Louis University Law Journal 333 (2018).
- What the Laws Demand of Socrates—and of Us, 98 The Monist 360 (2015).
- Equal Law in an Unequal World, 99 Iowa Law Review 1021 (2014).
Education
- BA, California State University
- JD, Harvard University
- PhD, Political Science, Stanford University
Prior Appointments
- Professor of Law, 2017-2020, University of Iowa
- Associate Professor of Law, 2012-2017, University of Iowa
- Visiting Professor of Law, Fall, 2019, Boston University
- Member, 2014-2015, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science