Paul W. Kahn
Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and Director, Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights
Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. Professor Kahn teaches in the areas of constitutional law and theory, international law, cultural theory and philosophy.
FULL BIOGRAPHY
Contact Information
- Room 226
- 203-432-4846
- paul.kahn@yale.edu
Faculty Assistant
Barbara Mianzo
- 249
- 203-432-7480
- barbara.mianzo@yale.edu
Education & Curriculum Vitae
J.D., Yale Law School, 1980
Ph.D. (Philosophy), Yale University, 1977
B.A., University of Chicago, 1973
Courses Taught
- Constitutional Law
- Human Rights Workshop: Current Issues and Events
- The Theory and Practice of Human Rights
Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. Professor Kahn teaches in the areas of constitutional law and theory, international law, cultural theory and philosophy. Before coming to Yale in 1985, he clerked for Justice White in the United States Supreme Court and practiced law in Washington, D.C., during which time he was on the legal team representing Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice. He is the author of Legitimacy and History: Self-Government in American Constitutional Theory; The Reign of Law: Marbury v. Madison and the Construction of America;The Cultural Study of Law: Reconstructing Legal Scholarship; Law and Love: The Trials of King Lear; Putting Liberalism in its Place; Out of Eden: Adam and Eve and the Problem of Evil; Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, Sovereignty; Finding Ourselves at the Movies: Philosophy for a New Generation; and Political Theology: Four New Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. (Professor Kahn discusses the book in a podcast from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. Listen here.) He earned his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in Philosophy and J.D. from Yale.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Professor Kahn Finds Lessons on Preserving Democracy Close to Home
In his new book, Professor Paul Kahn finds lessons on safeguarding American democracy in a small town: his own.
Friday, May 6, 2022
To Overrule a Precedent — A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Conference Highlights Professor Kahn’s Work
The work and jurisprudence of Professor Paul Kahn ’80 was discussed in a two-day workshop Law and Political Imagination on April 7 and 8 co-organized by the Edinburgh Law School Centre for Legal Theory.
Saturday, February 26, 2022
What We Have Already Lost in Ukraine — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
A Year in Books: Faculty Elevated New Ideas on a Range of Critical Issues
Yale Law School’s renowned faculty published an extraordinary collection of books and scholarship in 2021. Here’s a look back at the year in books published by YLS faculty and lecturers in law.
Friday, September 17, 2021
Texas Bounty Hunters, or a Private Army? — A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Austin American-Statesman
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and the Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Monday, August 23, 2021
Perhaps This Is What a Peaceful Transition Looks Like in Afghanistan — A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and the Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Professor Kahn Publishes a Philosophical Memoir
Professor Paul W. Kahn ’80 has published a memoir of the last five years of his mother’s life.
Friday, December 4, 2020
Professor Kahn Publishes New Book Examining a Virus’s Effect on Democracy
Professor Paul W. Kahn ’80 and coeditor Miguel Poiares Maduro have published a new book using COVID-19 as a case study to examine the most important challenges to democratic governance today.
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Why that Supreme Court religious rights decision was about Georgia — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School.
Friday, April 24, 2020
The perils of incrementalism — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80 and Kiel Brennan-Marquez ’11
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School. Kiel Brennan Marquez ’11 is a law professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Monday, March 23, 2020
National security matters more than ever in new era of coronavirus crisis — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School.
Monday, February 3, 2020
Why the 2020 winning ticket includes Michael Bloomberg — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
The Hill
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School.
Monday, December 9, 2019
Project and system — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
Aeon
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School.
Friday, November 29, 2019
The End of Conservatism — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
Yale University Press blog
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Professor Paul Kahn Reconceptualizes the Nature of Legal Order
Professor of Law and the Humanities Paul W. Kahn ’80 examines how two different concepts of order shape the American social imagination.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Seminar Returns to Argentina with Gender and Equality Focus
Legal scholars from Yale Law School and 14 countries convened in Buenos Aires in June for the 24th annual Seminario en Latinoamérica de Teoría Constitutional y Política, or SELA, this year addressing the topic of gender and equality.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
National emergency funding of border wall is unconstitutional — A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80 and Kiel Brennan Marquez ’11
The Hill
Paul Kahn ’80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and Kiel Brennan Marquez is a member of the Yale Law School class of 2011.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
America’s Divided Political Imaginary—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
global-e (USC Santa Barbara)
Paul W. Kahn '80 is the Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Firing Mueller? Pardoning cronies? Trump could get away with that and more if Congress doesn't act.—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
The Los Angeles Times
Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Scalia brought constitutional law into the political arena—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Beware a Pyrrhic victory over ISIL—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Hospital bombing reveals US failure in Afghanistan—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Netanyahu doesn’t care about Iran getting the bomb—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
The Dangers of Political Moralizing—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
The Huffington Post
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
In today’s world, fear corporations or fear nations?—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Los Angeles Times
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Liberalism needs better politicians, not better ideas—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Monday, April 13, 2015
At stake in Yemen, the nuclear deal with Iran—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Speaking Power to Truth, or, The Banality of Torture—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Political Theology Today
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Friday, November 14, 2014
A failed strategy cost the Democrats—A Commentary by Paul W. Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn ’80 is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Ebola scare revives post-9/11 public fears—A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
China’s Coming of Age in Hong Kong—A Commentary by Paul Kahn ’80
Al Jazeera America
Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities, and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Bernstein Symposium to Focus on Street Activism and Human Rights
This year’s Bernstein Symposium, to be held at Yale Law School on March 27 and 28, 2014, will center on discussion of “Human Rights in the Streets.”
Friday, November 15, 2013
Finding Ourselves at the Movies: Philosophy for a New Generation – A Book by Professor Paul W. Kahn ’80
Paul W. Kahn ’80, Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and Director, Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights, assesses the need for a new direction in philosophical inquiry.