Paul W. Kahn

Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities
(on leave, 2026–2027)
Education

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
Headshot of Paul Kahn

Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School. 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." (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.

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