Joseph William Singer
Bussey Professor of Law
Professor Joseph William Singer has been teaching at Harvard Law School since 1992. He was appointed Bussey Professor of Law in 2006. He began teaching at Boston University School of Law in 1984. Singer received a B.A. from Williams College in 1976, an A.M. in political science from Harvard in 1978, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1981. He clerked for Justice Morris Pashman on the Supreme Court of New Jersey from 1981 to 1982 and was an associate at the law firm of Palmer & Dodge in Boston, focusing on municipal law, from 1982 to 1984. He teaches and writes about property law, conflict of laws, federal Indian law, and legal theory with an emphasis on moral and political philosophy.
He has published more than 100 law review articles. He is one of the executive editors of the 2024 edition of Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law. He has written Property (with Nestor M. Davidson) (Aspen 7th ed. 2026); Property Law: Cases, Policies, & Practices (with Bethany R. Berger, Nestor M. Davidson, & Eduardo Moisés Peñalver) (Aspen 9th ed. 2026); Persuasion: Getting to the Other Side (2020); Choice of Law: Patterns, Arguments, Practices (2d ed. 2025); No Freedom Without Regulation: The Hidden Lesson of the Subprime Crisis (2015); Entitlement: The Paradoxes of Property (2000); and The Edges of the Field: Lessons on the Obligations of Ownership (2000).
Education
- J.D. Harvard Law School, 1981
- A.M. Political Science Harvard University, 1978
- B.A. Political Economy Williams College, 1976
Academic Appointment and Employment History
- Bussey Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (2006 - Present)
Cambridge, MA, US - Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (1992 - 2006)
Cambridge, MA, US - Frank Boas Visiting Professor of Law, William S. Richardson University of Hawai`i School of Law (2006 - 2006)
Honolulu, HI, US - Associate Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law (1984 - 1992)
Boston, MA, US - Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law (1990 - 1992)
Boston, MA, US - Associate, Palmer & Dodge (1982 - 1984)
municipal law
Boston, MA, US - Law Clerk, Justice Morris Pashman, Supreme Court of New Jersey (1981 - 1982)
Hackensack, NJ, US - Law Intern, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1980 - 1980)
Government Bureau
Boston, MA, US
Bar Admissions
- Massachusetts, United States (1981)
Clerkships
- Morris Pashman, Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1981 - 1982
Honors and Awards
- Distinguished Lecturer, Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University (Professional Honors)
2019 - Things Invisible to See: State Action and Private Property, Distinguished Real Property Law Keynote (Professional Honors)
2018 - Constitution Day Address: Indian Nations and the Constitution, University of Maine School of Law, S (Professional Honors)
2017 - Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize (Professional Honors)
2015 - Justifying Regulatory Takings, Kormendy Lecture (Ohio Northern University Claude Pettit College of L (Professional Honors)
2015 - Award of Excellence: Association for Law, Property, and Society), (Professional Honors)
2014 - Fourth Annual Wolf Family Lecture on American Property Law, University of Florida Fredric G. Levin Co (Professional Honors)
2011 - Brendan Brown Lecture (Loyola Law School) (Professional Honors)
2006 - Clason Lecture (Western New England College of Law) (Professional Honors)
2002 - Recht en kritiek lecture, Maastricht Conference on Property Law on the Threshold of the 21st Century (Professional Honors)
1995
Representative Publications
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Favorite
Joseph W. Singer, No Freedom without Regulation: The Hidden Lesson of the Subprime Crisis (Yale Univ. Press 2015). -
Favorite
Joseph W. Singer, We Don’t Serve Your Kind Here: Public Accommodations and the Mark of Sodom, 95 B.U. L. Rev. 929 (2015). -
Favorite
Joseph W. Singer, The Indian States of America: Parallel Universes & Overlapping Sovereignty, 38 Am. Indian L. Rev. 1 (2014). -
Favorite
Joseph W. Singer, Property Law Conflicts, 54 Washburn L. J. 139 (2014)
View all Representative Publications by Joseph William Singer
Recent Publications
- Joseph William Singer, "Merciless Indian Savages" or "Distinct, Independent Political Communities"?, in American Law & Governance: 250 and Beyond (Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel E. Charles eds., 2026).