Scott J. Shapiro

Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
(on leave, fall 2024)
Education

Ph.D., Columbia University, 1996

J.D., Yale Law School, 1990

B.A., Columbia University, 1987

Courses Taught
  • Jurisprudence
  • Advanced Topics in Jurisprudence
  • Introduction to Transnational Law
  • Constitutional Law
  • Criminal Law and Administration
  • Family Law
  • Legal Theory Workshop Colloquium
  • Introduction to Legal Philosophy
  • The Law and Technology of Cyber Conflict
  • The Foundations of Legal Scholarship
Scott Shapiro portrait

Scott Shapiro is the Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School. His areas of interest include the philosophy of law, international law, criminal law, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. He is the author of Legality (2011), The Internationalists (2017) (with Oona Hathaway), Fancy Bear Goes Phishing (2023) and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law (2002) (with Jules Coleman). He earned B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from Columbia University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Shapiro is an editor of Legal Theory and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He is the founding director of the Yale CyberSecurity Lab, which provides cutting-edge cybersecurity and information technology teaching facilities. In 2017, Shapiro founded the Yale Documentary Project, which provides legal representation to independent documentary filmmakers. He has just been appointed as Special Government Expert to the Office of the Technical Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, working on AI security.

Books

FANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING: THE DARK HISTORY OF THE INFORMATION AGE, IN FIVE EXTRAORDINARY HACKS (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Allen Lane in UK, 2023; Delight Press, Taiwan, 2023; Korean edition, forthcoming).

THE INTERNATIONALISTS: HOW A RADICAL PLAN TO OUTLAW WAR REMADE THE WORLD (with Oona Hathaway) (Simon and Schuster, 2017) 
(Allen Lane in UK, Nerri Pozza in Italy, Bungeishunju in Japan, 2018, Social Science Press in China, 2023; Tres Punto in Spain, forthcoming) 
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
The Economist, “Books of the Year 2017”
2018 Scribes Book Award Winner
Shortlisted for Lionel Gelber Prize
Shortlisted for Duke of Westminster 

DIMENSIONS OF NORMATIVITY: NEW ESSAYS ON METAETHICS AND JURISPRUDENCE, eds., D. Plunkett, S. Shapiro and K. Toh (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019)

LEGALITY (Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 2011) 
(Spanish translation, LEGALIDAD, Marcial Pons, 2014; Chinese translation, 合法性, China Legal Publishing House, 2016; Russian translation, Законност, Gaidar Institute Press, 2021;
Korean translation, Sechang Publishing Co, forthcoming; Mongolian translation, Mongolian State Press, forthcoming; Arabic translation, Dar Soual, forthcoming)

OXFORD HANDBOOK OF JURISPRUDENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF LAW, J. Coleman and S. Shapiro eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)
(Chinese translation, 2007)

Articles

“‘Put the Car on the Stand’: SMT-based Oracles for Investigating Decisions,” CSLaw 2024 (with Samuel Judson, Matthew Elacqua, Filip Cano Cordoba Timos Antonopoulos, Bettina Konighofer, and Ruzica Piskac)

“Analyzing Intentional Behavior in Autonomous Agents Under Uncertainty,” IJCAI 2023 (with Filip Cano Cordoba, Samuel Judson, Timos Antonopoulos, Katrine Bjørner, Nicholas Shoemaker, Ruzica Piskac, and Bettina Konighofer)“The Internationalists,” in LEADING WORKS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, ed. Donna Young (Routledge, 2023) (with Oona Hathaway)

“Proximate Cause Explained: An Essay in Experimental Jurisprudence,” 87 University of Chicago Law Review (2021) (with Joshua Knobe)

“Trump, Trade and War,” in ANTIDEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, eds., E. Klinenberg, C. Zaloom, and S. Marcus (Columbia University Press, 2019) (with Oona Hathaway)

“International Law and its Transformation through the Outlawry of War,” 95 International Affairs 45 (2019) (with Oona Hathaway). 

“Response to Critics,” 7 Global Constitutionalism 374 (2018) (with Oona Hathaway).

“Response,” Roundtable on The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World, H-Diplo (2019) (with Oona Hathaway)

“War Manifestos” 85 University of Chicago Law Review 1139 (2018) (with Oona Hathaway, William Holste, Jaqueline Van De Velde, Lisa Lachowizc)

“Law, Morality and Everything Else: General Jurisprudence as a Branch of Metanormative Theory,” 127 Ethics 37-68 (Oct. 2017) (with David Plunkett)

“Preface to Spanish translation of LEGALITY,” in LEGALIDAD, translated by D. Papayannis and L. Ramirez (Marcial Pons, 2014)

“Massively Shared Agency,” in M. Vargas and G. Yaffe, eds., RATIONAL AND SOCIAL AGENCY: ESSAYS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF MICHAEL BRATMAN (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)

"Precis to LEGALITY" and "Reply to Crocker, Guest and Murphy," 72 Analysis 537-41, 573-87 (2013)

“Outcasting: Enforcement in Domestic and International Law,” 121 Yale L.J. 252 (2011) (with Oona Hathaway)

“Was Inclusive Legal Positivism Founded on a Mistake?” 22 Ratio Juris 326 (2009)

What is the Rule of Recognition (and Does it Exist)?” in M. Adler and K. Himma, eds., THE RULE OF RECOGNITION AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)

“How Rules Affect Practical Reasoning,” in G. van Donsellar and B. Verbeek, eds., RATIONALITY AND INTENTIONS (Ashgate Publishing, 2008) (revised version of “The Difference That Rules Make”)

The ‘Hart-Dworkin’ Debate: A Short Guide for the Perplexed,” RONALD DWORKIN, ed. A. Ripstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

"Five Answers," in M.E.J. Nielson & I. Farrell, eds., LEGAL PHILOSOPHY: 5 QUESTIONS (New York: Automatic/VIP Press, 2007)

What is the Internal Point of View?” 75 Fordham Law Review 1157 (2006)

“The Rationality of Rule-Guided Behavior: A Statement of the Problem,” 42 University of San Diego Law Rev. 55 (2005)

“Law, Plans and Practical Reason,” 8 Legal Theory 387 (2002)

“Ulysses Rebound,”16 Economics and Philosophy 157 (2002)

Authority,” in J. Coleman and S. Shapiro, eds., OXFORD HANDBOOK OF JURISPRUDENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF LAW, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002).  Reprinted in J. Feinberg and J. Coleman, eds., THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW (7th Edition: Wadsworth Press, 2004).

Review of OBJECTIVITY IN LAW AND MORALS, 112 Ethics (2002)

“Judicial Can’t,” 35 Nous 530 (2001).  Reprinted in PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES XI (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 2001). 

“Hart, Herbert Lionel Aldophus,” A COMPANION TO ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 2001).

“Law, Morality and the Guidance of Conduct,” 6 Legal Theory 127 (2000).  Reprinted in PHILOSOPHY OF LAW, B. Bix ed. (Ashgate Press, 2005)

“The Bad Man and the Internal Point of View,” THE PATH OF THE LAW AND ITS INFLUENCE: THE LEGACY OF OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR., S. Burton ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)

“On Hart’s Way Out” 4 Legal Theory 454 (1999).  Reprinted in 
READINGS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW, J. Coleman ed. (Garland Press, 2000), LAW AND MORALITY, K. Himma and B. Bix, ed. (Ashgate Press, 2005) and, with revisions, HART’S POSTSCRIPT, J. Coleman ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001).  

“The Difference That Rules Make,” ANALYZING LAW: NEW ESSAYS IN LEGAL THEORY, B. Bix, ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998).  

“Rule-Guided Behavior,” THE NEW PALGRAVE DICTIONARY OF ECONOMICS AND THE LAW, P. Newman ed. (with E. McClennan) (1998)
 
“Law and Economics from a Philosophical Perspective,” THE NEW PALGRAVE DICTIONARY OF ECONOMICS AND THE LAW, P. Newman ed. (with E. McClennan) (1998)

“Fear of Theory,” 64 University of Chicago Law Review 389-403 (1997)

“Maps Between Nonmonotonic and Conditional Logic,” PRINCIPLES OF KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING 505 15 (1992)                   
(with H. Arlo Costa)

“Reviewing the Unreviewable Judge: Federal Prosecution Appeals of         Mid trial Evidentiary Rulings,” 99 Yale Law Journal 905 24 (1990)

Popular Writing

“Staying One Step Ahead of Hackers When it Comes to AI,” Wired, January 8, 2024

“A Tech Tsunami,” The Guardian, September 8, 2023 (review of Mustafa Suleyman, The Coming Wave)

“Deux Ex Machina: the Dangers of Godbots,” The Spectator, July 29, 2023 (with Webb Keane)  

“Patch Me if You Can: How a New Jersey teenager's malware threatened the entire Internet,” IEEE Spectrum, June 2023

“This is Why I Teach My Law Students How to Hack,” New York Times, May 23, 2023

“On the Trail of Dark Avenger: The Most Dangerous Virus Writer in the World,” The Guardian, May 9, 2023“Putin Can’t Destroy the International Order by Himself,” Lawfare, February 24, 2022 (with Oona Hathaway)

“Supplying Arms to Ukraine is not an Act of War,” Lawfare, March 12, 2022 (with Oona Hathaway)

“Welcome to the Post Leadership World” Foreign Policy (Summer 2020) (with Oona Hathaway)

“The Origins of War Manifestos,” University of Chicago Law Review Online (May 20, 2019) (with Oona Hathaway, William Holste, Jaqueline Van De Velde, Lisa Lachowizc)

“Trump’s Golan Policy and Its Threat to the Post-War International Legal Order,” Just Security (May 16, 2019) (with Oona Hathaway)

“What Realists Don’t Understand About Law,” Foreign Policy (Oct. 9, 2017) (with Oona Hathaway).

“The Internationalists vs. the Realists and Neocons,” Lawfare, September 25, 2017 (with Oona Hathaway)

“Making War Illegal Changed the World. But It’s Getting Too Easy to Break the Law,” The Guardian (September 17, 2017) (with Oona Hathaway)

“Outlawing War? It Actually Worked,” The New York Times, September 3, 2017 (with Oona Hathaway)

“On Syria, a U.N. Vote Isn’t Optional,” The New York Times (September 3, 2013) (with Oona Hathaway)

“Attacking Syria without the U.N. Approval Would Be A Mistake,” Washington Post (August 28, 2013) (with Oona Hathaway)

“Oh, God” Legal Affairs, May 2005 (with Alison Mackeen)