Margaret Jane Radin
Margaret Jane Radin (born 1941) is the Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, emerita, at the University of Michigan Law School by vocation, and a flutist by avocation. Radin has held law faculty positions at University of Toronto, University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of Southern California, and University of Oregon, and has been a faculty visitor at Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, and New York University. Radin's best known scholarly work explores the basis and limits of property rights and contractual obligation. She has also contributed significantly to feminist legal theory , legal and political philosophy, and the evolution of law in the digital world. At the same time, she has continued to perform and study music. Radin is well known for developing the concept of market-inalienability, a term she coined to refer to what kinds of things should not be traded in markets. Her book, "Contested Commodities", explores what kinds of market trades and resulting commodification should be disallowed or curtailed. Radin is also known for re-examining the basis of freedom of choice that is basic to freedom of contract and how it is (or is not) reflected in  contemporary law. Her book, "Boilerplate", focuses on what types of alleged agreements between a firm and consumers should not be enforceable contracts, or at least not presumed enforceable without further investigation, and suggests other ways that standardization could be treated. Radin travels frequently to lecture and participate in workshops and seminars on these topics. In addition to her books, Radin is the author of many frequently-cited articles and book chapters, two of which are on a list of 100 most cited legal articles of all time, and many of which have been reprinted in textbooks and anthologies. She founded  and was the inaugural director of Stanford's Program in Law, Science & Technology, and was the inaugural Microsoft Fellow at Princeton's Program in Law, Science and Public Affairs. Among other honors, she has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Career. Radin is Distinguished Research Scholar at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, where she serves on the Advisory Group for the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy. She is Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, emerita, University of Michigan Law School (retired 2015) and William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law , Stanford University (retired in 2006). Before moving to Stanford in 1989, she held a tenured chair professorship at the University of Southern California Law Center. Radin has also taught at Harvard University, University of California at Berkeley, New York University, and Princeton University, where she was the inaugural Microsoft Fellow in Law and Public Affairs. Radin is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the American Law Institute. As a professor, Radin pioneered courses in Legal Issues in Cyberspace, Electronic Commerce, and Intellectual Property in Cyberspace. She also created a course in International  Intellectual Property, and a Student Scholarship Seminar in which law students develop publisher papers. In 2002, she founded Stanford's Center for E-Commerce. She also directed Stanford's innovative LL.M. program in Law, Science, and Technology. Radin is a member (currently inactive) of the State Bar of California. Radin is coauthor of a casebook, "Internet Commerce: The Emerging Legal Framework" (with Rothchild, Reese, and Silverman) (2d ed 200x, with supplementary updates). Her most recent book is "Boilerplate: The Fine Print, Vanishing Rights, and the Rule of Law" (Princeton University Press 2013), which explores the problems posed for the legal  system by the standardization necessary for the modern market, and how those problems might be reduced. Radin also has published two books exploring the problems of propertization: "Contested Commodities" (Harvard University Press 1996) and "Reinterpreting Property" (University of Chicago Press 1993). The latter is a collection of her well-known essays on property, including "Property and Personhood," first published in 1982, and a staple in casebooks for students of property. Education. Radin received her AB in music from Stanford University in 1963 (with Great Distinction), her MFA in Music History from Brandeis University in 1965, and was advanced to candidacy  for a PhD in musicology at University of California Berkeley in 1968 before changing her career path to law. She received her J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School in 1976 (Order of the Coif). Personal life. Radin is a grandniece of Max Radin, a leader of the legal realist movement in the first half of the 20th century, but she never met him. She is married to violinist Phillip Coonce and the mother of Wayland Radin, J.D., who calls himself an "outdoorsy" lawyer, and Amadea Britton, M.D., a public health scientist interested in infectious diseases. Radin splits  her time between homes in Toronto and Albuquerque, New Mexico. She practises her flute daily, and plays in small and large ensembles as often as possible.