Kermit Roosevelt
David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice
Kermit Roosevelt is the David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice at Penn Carey Law School. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and from Yale Law School, where he was Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Stephen Williams on the D.C. Circuit. He was selected by the American Law Institute as Reporter for the Third Restatement of Conflict of Laws and served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. He is also an award-winning novelist.
Teaching Style
Professor Roosevelt is a thoughtful and intellectually stimulating teacher who uses the Socratic method to challenge students to think clearly about constitutional interpretation and judicial decision-making. He cold-calls students and presses them to distinguish good constitutional arguments from bad ones based on methodology rather than outcomes. His appointment as Reporter for the ALI's Restatement of Conflict of Laws gives him special authority in that field, and his classes reflect deep analytical precision.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Be prepared to distinguish between different theories of constitutional interpretation and to articulate which one you find most persuasive and why
- 2In Conflict of Laws, know the major choice-of-law approaches (First Restatement, interest analysis, most significant relationship) and be ready to apply them to fact patterns
- 3Read The Myth of Judicial Activism to understand his framework for evaluating Supreme Court decisions
- 4Think about what makes a legal argument legitimate versus results-oriented — Roosevelt cares deeply about methodological rigor
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., Yale Law School
- A.B., Harvard College (summa cum laude)
Notable Publications
- The Myth of Judicial Activism: Making Sense of Supreme Court Decisions (2006)
- Conflict of Laws (Foundation Press, 2010)
- Third Restatement of Conflict of Laws (Reporter, American Law Institute)
Research Interests
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