Tenure Offered To Ramseyer

J. Mark Ramseyer, professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School, received a tenure appointment at Harvard Law School (HLS), the school announced Monday.

Ramseyer was named the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies. Ramseyer will join the HLS faculty next fall.

"There's lots of exciting work going on at the Harvard Law School," wrote Ramseyer in a press release. "It's a delight and an honor to be part of the place."

Law School Dean Robert C. Clark offered high praise for Ramseyer's work.

"Professor Ramseyer is a magnificent scholar and teacher," Clark said. "His work in Japanese law will add immeasurably to the scope and depth of our Program in East Asian Legal Studies and international legal studies generally."

Professor Randall C. Picker, a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School, pointed to Ramseyer as the leading American on Japanese law who brings a rational choice perspective to legal analysis.

"What's unusual is to have this combination of skills," said Picker.

"He has a knowledge of rational choice theory and U.S. corporate law as well as being an expert on Japanese law," Picker said.

William P. Alford, director of HLS's East Asian Legal Studies Program, also praised Ramseyer's scholarship.

"Professor Ramseyer will be a marvelous addition to the Harvard Law School faculty," said Alford. "He truly is a scholar of world-class proportions."

Ramseyer has published several books and many scholarly essays on Japanese law, economics and politics. The son of missionaries, Ramseyer grew up in Japan.

In 1991, Ramseyer was a Harvard Law School Visiting Professor and received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1982 from HLS. He has also been a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, an associate with Sidley & Austin in Chicago, and an adjunct instructor of law at Tohoku University and Hitotsubashi University in Japan.