Faculty and Administration Profiles

John Bronsteen

About

Professor Bronsteen's research applies the findings of hedonic psychology to areas of law such as criminal punishment and regulatory decision-making. His work has been published in the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the California Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, and the Georgetown Law Journal, among many others—including the Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics and the philosophy journal Utilitas.

After graduating from law school, Professor Bronsteen clerked for Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He was then an associate at Goldstein & Howe in Washington, D.C., where he primarily worked on the litigation of U.S. Supreme Court cases. He then spent two years as a Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School before coming to Loyola.

Degrees

AB, Harvard
JD, Yale

Program Areas

Law and Hedonic Psychology

Courses Taught

Criminal Law
Advanced Criminal Law
Law and Psychology
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law

Selected Publications

Publications 

Professor John Bronsteen's SSRN Webpage 

BOOKS

Happiness and the Law (University of Chicago Press 2015) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

Writing a Legal Memo (Foundation Press 2006)

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS AND BOOK CHAPTERS

The Folk Theory of Well-Being, in Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, Volume 5 (2024) (with Brian Leiter, Jonathan Masur, and Kevin Tobia)

Happiness and Economic Justice, 1 GNH and the Law Journal (2021)

Would Hamsterdam Work? Drug Depenalization in The Wire and in Real Life, 2018 U. Chicago Legal Forum 43 (2019)

Analysing the Law’s Effects on Human Well-Being: A Comparative Perspective, 13 Journal of Comparative Law 2 (2018) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

Well-Being and Public Policy, in The Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics (2017) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

Preferring to Decrease One’s Own Well-Being, 29 Utilitas 52 (2017)

Measuring and Improving the Effect of Higher Education on Subjective Well-Being, in Well-Being and Higher Education (2016)

The Overlooked Benefits of the Blackstone Principle, 128 Harvard L. Rev. Forum 289 (2015) (with Jonathan Masur)

Well-Being Analysis vs. Cost-Benefit Analysis, 62 Duke L.J. 1603 (2013) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

52 American Journal of Legal History 240 (2012) (solicited review of "Wholesale Justice" by Martin Redish)

Retribution and the Experience of Punishment, 98 California L. Rev. 1463 (2010) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

Welfare as Happiness, 98 Georgetown L.J. 1583 (2010) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur) 

Happiness and Punishment, 76 U. Chicago L. Rev. 1037 (2009) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

Some Thoughts About the Economics of Settlement, 78 Fordham L. Rev. 1129 (2009) (symposium)

Retribution's Role, 84 Indiana L.J. 1129 (2009)

Describing the Effect of Adaptation on Settlement, 109 Columbia L. Rev. Sidebar 21 (2009) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

Hedonic Adaptation and the Settlement of Civil Lawsuits, 108 Columbia L. Rev. 1516 (2008) (with Christopher Buccafusco and Jonathan Masur)

ERISA, Agency Costs, and the Future of Health Care in the United States, 76 Fordham L. Rev. 2297 (2008) (with Brendan Maher and Peter Stris)

Against Summary Judgment, 75 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 522 (2007)

Class Action Settlements: An Opt-in Proposal, 2005 U. Illinois L. Rev. 903 (2005)

The Class Action Rule, 78 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1419 (2003) (with Owen Fiss)