Eric L. Muller Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor of Law in Jurisprudence and Ethics
EDUCATION
J.D., Yale University (1987) A.B., Brown University (1984)
After earning his Phi Beta Kappa key from Brown University and serving as Current Topics Editor for the Yale Law and Policy Review while at Yale, Muller clerked for United States District Judge H. Lee Sarokin in Newark, New Jersey from 1987 to 1988. He then practiced in the litigation department of a private law firm in Manhattan from 1988 to 1990, before joining the United States Attorney's Office in Newark, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Appeals Division from 1990 to 1994.
After several years of adjunct teaching at Seton Hall Law School while still in government practice, Muller moved to the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1994 to begin full-time teaching, specializing in criminal law and procedure and constitutional law. In 1997, the graduating class named him the Outstanding Faculty Member in the College of Law.
Muller joined the UNC faculty in the fall of 1998. He has published articles in the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, and the University of Chicago Law Review, among many other academic journals. His book "Free to Die for their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters of World War II," was published in August of 2001 by the University of Chicago Press, and was named one of the Washington Post Book World's Top Nonfiction Titles of 2001. His second book, "American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II," was published by the University of North Carolina Press in October of 2007. His most recent book, "Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II", published by the University of North Carolina Press in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, was profiled in the New York Times in June of 2012. It won the Joan Patterson Kerr Book Award from the Western History Association in 2013.
From 2008 through 2011, Muller served at the law school as Associate Dean for Faculty Development. In both 2010 and 2011, he received the Frederick B. McCall Award for Teaching Excellence, voted by the graduating classes.
Muller serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina Press and is a member of the university-level Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee at UNC-Chapel Hill.
From January of 2012 through December of 2015, Muller served as Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the campus's faculty development center.
Many of Muller's papers are available online via SSRN.
PUBLICATIONS Books
COLORS OF CONFINEMENT: RARE KODACHROME PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WORLD WAR II (with photographs by Bill Manbo) (UNC Press, 2012) AMERICAN INQUISITION: THE HUNT FOR JAPANESE AMERICAN DISLOYALTY IN WORLD WAR II (University of North Carolina Press, 2007). FREE TO DIE FOR THEIR COUNTRY: THE STORY OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN DRAFT RESISTERS IN WORLD WAR II (University of Chicago Press, 2001, paperback 2003).
Book Chapters
Nisei Who Said "No": Japanese American Draft Resistance in World War II, in THE ROUTLEDGE HISTORY OF RACE IN THE AMERICAN MILITARY (Geoffery W. Jensen, ed., Routledge 2016). Some Comments by a Law Professor, in MINIDOKA REVISITED: THE PAINTINGS OF ROGER SHIMOMURA (Univ. of Washington Press, 2005). The Minidoka Draft Resisters in a Federal Kangaroo Court, in NIKKEI IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: JAPANESE AMERICANS & JAPANESE CANADIANS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (L. Fiset and G. Nomura eds.) (University of Washington Press, 2003). The Nisei Draft Resisters and the Constitution, in A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE: ESSAYS ON THE WORLD WAR II HEART MOUNTAIN DRAFT RESISTANCE MOVEMENT (Mike Mackey ed., Western History Publications 2002) Harmless Error, in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION (L. Levy and K. Karst, eds., 2d ed., Macmillan supp. 2000).
Articles
1 There Was Nothing "Neutral" About Executive Order 9066, 74 ARK. L. REV. 297 (2021). Korematsu, Hirabayashi and the Second Monster, 98 TEX. L. REV. (forthcoming 2020). The Nazi Analogy in Japanese American Civil Rights Discourse, PATTERNS PREJUDICE (forthcoming 2020). The War Relocation Authority and the Wounding of Japanese American Loyalty, 86 SOC. RES. 821 (2019). Of Coercion and Accommodation: Looking at Japanese American Imprisonment through a Law Office Window, 35 LAW & HIST. REV. 277 (2017). The Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics and the Moral Formation of Lawyers, 64 J. LEGAL EDUC. 385 (2015). Developing the Faculty as a Writing Community, 100 ACADEME 6 (2014). Of Nazis, Americans, and Educating Against Catastrophe, 60 Buff. L. Rev. 323 (2012). Hirabayashi and the Invasion Evasion, 88 N.C. L. REV. 1333 (2010). Americanism Behind Barbed Wire, 31 NANZAN REV. AM. STUD. 13 (2009). Introduction: State v. Mann and Thomas Ruffin in History and Memory (with S. Greene), 87 N.C. L. REV. 669 (2009). Judging Thomas Ruffin and the Hindsight Defense, 87 N.C. L. REV. 757 (2009). Bill Murphy and the Hidden Inner Layer of Academic Freedom. (Date Posted: March 20, 2008). The Embodiment of Academic Freedom (A Tribute to Professor William P. Murphy) , 86 N.C. L. REV. 311 (2008). Fixing a Hole: How the Criminal Law Can Bolster Reparations Theory, 47 B.C.L. REV. 659 (2006). The Japanese American Cases - A Bigger Disaster Than We Realized, 49 HOW. L.J. 417 (2006). A Penny for Their Thoughts: Draft Resistance at the Poston Relocation Center, 68 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 119 (2005). Foreword: Judgments Judged and Wrongs Remembered: Examining the Japanese American Civil Liberties Cases on Their Sixtieth Anniversary, 68 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 1 (2005) Judging our Ancestors: Lessons from the Criminal Law (Date Posted:March 8, 2005). Betrayal on Trial: Japanese-American "Treason" in World War II, 82 N.C. L. REV. 1759 (2004). Constitutional Conscience, 83 B.U. L. REV. 1017 (2003). Inference or Impact? Racial Profiling and the Internment's True Legacy, 1 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 103 (2003). 12/7 and 9/11: War, Liberties, and the Lessons of History, 104 W. VA. L. REV. 571 (2002). What's in a Name(tag)? 52 J. LEGAL EDUC. 314 (2002) (suggestions for improving identification at the American Ass'n of Law Schools annual meeting). Apologies or Apologists? Remembering the Japanese American Internment in Wyoming, 1 WYO. L. REV. 473 (2001). Hang on to Your Hats! Terry Into the Twenty-First Century, 72 ST. JOHN'S L. REV. 1141 (1998). The Hobgoblin of Little Minds? Our Foolish Law of Inconsistent Verdicts, 111 HARV. L. REV. 771 (1998). Where But for the Grace of God, Goes He? The Search for Empathy in the Criminal Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas, 15 CONST. COMMENT. 225 (1998). Solving the Batson Paradox: Harmless Error, Jury Representation, and the Sixth Amendment, 106 YALE L.J. 93 (1996). A New Law Teacher's Guide to Choosing a Casebook, 45 J. LEGAL EDUC. 557 (1995). The Virtue of Mercy in Criminal Sentencing, 24 SETON HALL L. REV. 288 (1993).
Book Reviews
Book Review (of Stephanie D. Bangarth, VOICES RAISED IN PROTEST: DEFENDING NORTH AMERICAN CITIZENS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY, 1942-49 (2009)), 27 LAW & HIST. REV. 702 (2009). Book Review Indefensible Internment (reviewing Michelle Malkin, IN DEFENSE OF INTERNMENT: THE CASE FOR "RACIAL PROFILING" IN WORLD WAR II AND THE WAR ON TERROR (Regnery Pub, 2004)), REASON, Dec. 2004, at 59. Book Review Hyphenated Americans: Judge Louis Goodman and the Japanese American Draft Resisters of World War II, 2/3 CCAR J. 5 (2002). Book Review All the Themes but One, 66 U. CHI. L. REV. 1395 (1999) (reviewing William H. Rehnquist, ALL THE LAWS BUT ONE (Knopf 1998)).
Other
A Bigot's Guide to American History (posted Feb. 2, 2005).
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Civil Rights Constitutional Law Criminal Law Criminal Law - Juries Legal History
CURRENT COURSES
Constitutional Law (Law 234A-Spring 2022) Criminal Procedure: Adjudication (Law 225-Fall 2021)
SCHOOL NEWS
Muller Wins Book Award Muller and Brown ’13 Participate in Auschwitz Fellowship Program Muller Accepts Excellence in Exhibition Award on Behalf of Heart Mountain Interpretive Center
IN THE MEDIA
Muller Writes: Debating the Term "Concentration Camp" Video: Muller Presentation on Japanese Internment Camp Photos (C-SPAN)
2 Prof. Muller's book "Colors of Confinement” featured in the New York Times Muller Writes, Injustice, in Kodachrome The Japanese-American Internment Experience Featuring Muller (Audio) Muller Speaks on The Power of History (Audio)
CONTACT INFORMATION Office: 5129 Van Hecke-Wettach Hall Phone: 919.962.7067 Fax: 919.962.1277 E-mail: [email protected]
PERSONAL SITES
I blog occasionally at The Faculty Lounge My SSRN Author Page
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