Paul A. Gowder
Professor of Law
Phone
(312) 503-7617
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Related Links
Paul Gowder's Personal Site
| Book: The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation
| Book: The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms
Assistant
Jane Brock
Assistant Phone
(312) 503-8544
Assistant Email
janebrock@law.northwestern.edu
Biography
Paul Gowder joined the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law faculty in 2020. His research focuses on the rule of law, democratic theory, social and racial equality, institutional and organizational governance, law and technology, and classical Athenian law and political thought. 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, predatory lending, employment discrimination, unlawful eviction, domestic violence, and numerous other injustices. His affilations, past and present, include service as a member of the Global Rule of Law Commission of the European Public Law Organization, a member (2014-5) of the School of Social Science of the Institute for Advanced Study, an elected member of the American Law Institute, and a founding fellow and former board member (founding to 2024) of the Integrity Institute. He is the author of three books: The Rule of Law in the Real World (Cambridge, 2016), The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation (Hart/Bloomsbury 2021), and The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms (Cambridge 2023). Each of those books can be downloaded in free open PDF form starting from the links at https://books.gowder.io.
Areas of Expertise
- Political, Moral, and Legal Philosophy
- Constitutional Law
- Critical Race Theory
- Law & Technology
Selected Publications
- The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms (2023).
- The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation (2021).
- 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 , 82 (Supp. 1, 2018).
- Resisting the Rule of Men, 62 Saint Louis University Law Journal 333 (2018).
Education
- BA, California State University
- JD, Harvard University
- PhD, Political Science, Stanford University
Prior Appointments
- Associate Dean of Research and Intellectual Life, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
- 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