James Q. Whitman

In four books and dozens of articles, James Q. Whitman has made fundamental contributions to the comparative study of the Western legal tradition. In 2003, his book Harsh Justice touched off debate over the U.S.'s dismaying record of incarceration. His articles have opened debate in the comparative study of equality, contrasting American leveling down to European leveling up. His work has set a standard for originality of argument in fields as diverse as commercial law, the laws of war, and the law of proof; his work has ranged from Roman law and the Middle Ages, to the age of revolution and the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.