New Faculty Such As How Politicians Build Support And, Conversely, How Constituents Control Politi- Cians

faculty focus as statistical modeling, to look at issues New Faculty such as how politicians build support and, conversely, how constituents control politicians. “The logic of majority rule says don’t be too hard to please,” or you’ll be left out of the majority, Ferejohn says. “You better find a way to prevent politicians from playing you off against others. So essentially, to control a politician, you need to come to some sort of agreement with other vot- John Ferejohn He died tragically in his sleep at age 33 ers on a single evaluative criterion, such as when Ferejohn was just seven years old. the liberal or conservative dimension, and visiting professor of law His mother, Olga Collazo, married physi- then not set so high a standard that the pol- john ferejohn can lecture on pork- cist Robert Bjork and moved the family to itician will simply ignore it.” barrel politics in the afternoon and whip Santa Monica. Currently, he’s coauthoring a book ten- up a dish of pork bellies with scallops that At age 12, Ferejohn started playing the tatively called Super Statutes, which chal- evening. A true Renaissance man who plays clarinet, saxophone and flute. Within a few lenges the belief that the fundamental jazz saxophone, runs marathons, collects years, he was playing at jazz clubs, intend- rights enjoyed by Americans are protected wines, travels extensively and experiments ing to be a jazz musician. He married his by the Constitution. “Instead of doing with molecular gastronomy—an avant- high-school sweetheart, Sally, now a constitutional law from the top garde cuisine that uses chemical powders retired elementary school teacher, down, we want to look at the real to create new textures such as liquid ravi- and worked his way through San rights we have and rely on day to oli—Ferejohn has academic interests that Fernando State College doing pay- day, from the bottom up,” he says. also span a number of disciplines. roll accounting for an aerospace Written with William Eskridge Jr., At Stanford University, his home since company. Realizing soon enough John A. Garver Professor of Juris- 1983, Ferejohn, Carolyn S. G. Munro Pro- that playing the sax wouldn’t prudence at Yale Law School, and fessor of Political Science, has chaired the pay the bills, he focused expanded from an earlier article, department and taught in the philosophy on his schoolwork and the book is due to be pub- department and the Graduate School of was accepted at Stan- lished by Yale University Business. Currently, he is a fellow at the ford University. Press in 2009. Hoover Institution. A non-lawyer, he none- During his first Just as he improvises theless has been teaching one semester at year at Stanford in jazz compositions, Fe- the NYU School of Law since 1993, and will 1968, he “discovered rejohn enjoys taking an join the faculty full-time in 2009. “He does that it was possible “eclectic” approach to everything,” says Lewis Kornhauser, Alfred to use deductive academics. In addition B. Engelberg Professor of Law, with whom thinking to see how to using techniques of he coteaches the Colloquium on Law, Eco- politicians do things. PPT, he looks forward nomics and Politics. “He has great curios- I got interested in ex- to collaborating with ity, a penetrating mind, and can talk about ploring the elegant NYU legal philosophers anything that goes on in the Law School.” and simple idea that Thomas Nagel and Liam Ferejohn is known for his work on vot- complex political insti- Murphy, among others. ers and the responsiveness of their elected tutions had a simple un- “Part of law—constitu- officials. He is also credited with being derlying logic.” He loaded tional law in particu- one of the founders of positive political up on mathematics and eco- lar—is really an applied thinking (PPT), a methodology that uses nomics courses, and in 1972, area of political and moral mathematical models, economics and he earned his Ph.D. in politi- philosophy. And NYU is re- game theory to analyze the workings of cal science. In 1974, he pub- ally strong in these areas,” political institutions. “John is the great lished his first of five books, says Ferejohn, who has positive political theorist of his generation,” Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and taught political philosophy says Kenneth Shepsle, George D. Markham Harbors Legislation, 1947-1968 at both California Institute Professor of Government at Harvard Uni- (Stanford University Press). of Technology and Stanford. versity. “When he was starting out in the Both Pork Barrel Politics “The nice thing about applied early 1970s, PPT was extremely novel. It was and his second book, The as opposed to theoretical ap- through a lot of John’s work that it became Personal Vote: Constituency proaches to these topics is much more mainstream.” Service and Electoral Inde- that one can see the conflicts Ferejohn was born on an Army base in pendence (Harvard Univer- in sharper relief, and political Deming, New Mexico. His father, George, a sity Press, 1987), which he scientists have a congenital high school dropout who once worked as coauthored with Bruce Cain love for conflict.” a janitor at Columbia University, became of the University of Califor- Joining NYU full-time will a bombardier instructor in the U.S. Army nia, Berkeley and Morris Fio- allow him to focus more on Air Corps, then went on to attend Cornell rina of Stanford, use PPT and the philosophical approach University and Harvard Medical School. game theory strategies, as well to law. Plus, Ferejohn, 40 THE LAW SCHOOL faculty focus who has three children and three grand- teacher. They had two sons, Moshe and Dov, much the struggles within Jewish thought children, will be able to explore Man- and moved to Jerusalem when Moshe was resonate with ongoing struggles in law, lit- hattan’s exciting music scene—and its eight years old. Halbertal remembers his erature and politics today,” says Richard mouthwatering culinary offerings. He also father, the educational director of a high Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Consti- looks forward to performing in some of the school who died in his early 70s in 2001, as tutional Law. Pildes cites current debates downtown jazz clubs he’s played in the past. an optimistic person who taught him the over the role of the Constitution in Ameri- And who knows? He may even twist foie power of gratitude and giving. “When I can law and culture, the proper methods of gras ribbons into bow ties in the kitchen of asked him how he came from there with- constitutional interpretation or the legiti- the city’s molecular-cooking mecca, wd~50. out being broken,” says Halbertal, “he said, mate space for dissent from rulings of the —Jennifer Frey ‘Whenever I was in distress, I saw someone Supreme Court as subject to illumination in far more distress and gave help to him.’” through Halbertal’s exposure of the centu- Both parents also instilled a deep respect ries-long turmoil over surprisingly similar Moshe Halbertal for education. “My father’s formative years issues within the traditions of Jewish reli- were all about survival,” Halbertal says. “He gious thought. gruss professor of law wanted his children to have the gift of what In 2001, Halbertal was appointed by a burt neuborne calls moshe halbertal he missed, the gift to study and grow, so in committee established by the Israeli Joint “the star of the Monday meetings.” At these some ways, we were the children who Chiefs of Staff to contribute to the weekly faculty gatherings, a professor pres- fulfilled whatever he hadn’t had.” drafting of the ethics code for the ents a working paper; it’s an opportunity to Halbertal received a strong, Israeli Army. Given the impor- receive feedback and share expertise with Talmudic education in yeshiva, an tance to Israel of its military, cre- fellow scholars. Halbertal always stands out Orthodox Jewish rabbinical semi- ating any restrictions on military for not only having read the week’s paper nary, and then attended Hebrew might was a delicate operation. but being among the first to ask questions. University, where he earned a However, the ultimate product, “He taught me how to behave on Mondays: B.A. and a Ph.D. in Jewish says Yishai Beer, professor of I time my question carefully so that I have thought and philoso- law at Hebrew University, raised my hand early but get called on after phy. His work began “was a masterpiece.” Moshe,” says Neuborne, tongue-in-cheek. to focus on the inter- More recently, Hal- “Then I say, ‘Never mind, Moshe has already section of Jewish law bertal was the guest asked my question.’” and philosophy when at the Colloquium in Halbertal, a global visiting professor he noticed a “construc- Legal, Political and of law and Gruss Visiting Professor of Law tive tension,” namely the Social Philosophy— since 2003, joins the faculty as the tenured question, “What is the role known for conven- Gruss Professor of Law this fall. He will con- of value in adjudicating being some of the most tinue his practice of spending the spring se- tween possibilities?” For ex- incisive, even ruthless, mester in Israel, where he is a professor of ample, Halbertal notes that intellectuals and phi- Jewish thought and philosophy at Hebrew a saying such as “an eye for losophers for a thorough University. At NYU, he teaches Jewish Law an eye” can be read in two dissection of papers-in- and Legal Theory and the Ethics of Obliga- plausible ways: the seman- process.

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