# Judge Richard Posner, RIP

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/judge-richard-posner-rip/
- Published: 2026-11-12T00:09:28+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-12T00:22:59+00:00
- Original publisher: Reason (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/11/11/judge-richard-posner-rip/
- Topics: Politics

## Key points

- Richard Posner helped found law and economics.
- His scholarship influenced legal debate and policy.
- He joined the Seventh Circuit in 1981.

## Summary

Judge Richard Posner, a leading legal scholar and influential federal appeals judge, has died. He helped establish the field of law and economics, applying economic ideas to legal questions in work that shaped scholarship, policy and judicial thinking.

A professor at the University of Chicago Law School, Posner published *Economic Analysis of Law* in 1973 and wrote influential work on subjects including antitrust, regulation, judging and literature. He joined the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1981, where he became known for widely cited opinions that he usually drafted himself. The article also recalls his ability to explain complex legal ideas clearly and the respect he received from judges with different philosophies.

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