Biography

A leading expert on the application of economics to legal problems, Alan Sykes has focused his research on international economic relations. His writing and teaching have encompassed international trade, torts, contracts, insurance, antitrust, and economic analysis of law. He has been a member of the executive committee and the board of the American Law and Economics Association, and currently serves as reporter for the American Law Institute Project on Principles of Trade Law: The World Trade Organization. Professor Sykes is associate editor of the Journal of International Economic Law, and a member of the board of editors of the World Trade Review. He formerly served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies and the Journal of Law and Economics.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2006, Professor Sykes was the Frank and Bernice Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he also served as Faculty Director of Curriculum. He is a former National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow in the Yale University Department of Economics.

Key Works

• John H. Jackson, William J. Davey and Alan O. Sykes, Legal Problems of International Economic Relations : Cases, Materials, and Text on the National and International Regulation of Transnational Economic Relations, 4th ed., St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002.
• Daniel R. Fischel and Alan O. Sykes, Corporate Crime, 25 Journal of Legal Studies 319 (1996). Reprinted in Milestones in Management, v. 10: Management and Law, Felix Ehrat and Eric Stupp, eds., Basel: Helbing and Lichtenhan, 2003.
• Alan O. Sykes, Product Standards for Internationally Integrated Goods Markets, Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution, 1995.
• Alan O. Sykes, Protectionism as a "Safeguard": A Positive Analysis of the GATT "Escape Clause" with Normative Speculations, 58 University of Chicago Law Review 255 (1991).
• Alan O. Sykes, The Economics of Vicarious Liability, 93 Yale Law Journal 1231 (1984).

In the News

• Credits May Not Reduce Emissions
  The Stanford Daily, May 30, 2008

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Dispute Resolution in International Economic Law
• International Economic Law and Policy: Current Issues
• International Law Workshop
• International Trade Regulation
• Law, Economics, and Policy of Trade
• Torts

Programs

• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Alan O. Sykes and Chad Bown, Commentary on United States - Final Antidumping Duties on Softwood Lumber from Canada (prepared for the American Institute Project on Principles of World Trade Law), World Trade Law Review (forthcoming 2008).
• Alan O. Sykes, Strict Liability Versus Negligence in Indiana Harbor (Special Issue Commemorating Twenty-Five Years of Judge Richard A. Posner), 74 University of Chicago Law Review 1911 (2007).
• Alvin K. Klevorick and Alan O. Sykes, United States Courts and the Optimal Deterrence of International Cartels: A Welfarist Perspective on Empagran, in Antitrust Stories, Eleanor M. Fox and Daniel A. Crane, eds., New York: Foundation Press, September 2007.
• Alan O. Sykes, Douglas A. Irwin and Petros C. Mavroidis, The Genesis of the GATT (prepared for the American Law Institute Project on Principles of World Trade Law), 2007.
• Eric A. Posner and Alan O. Sykes, An Economic Analysis of State and Individual Responsibility Under International Law, 9 American Law and Economics Review 72 (2007).
• Alvin K. Klevorick and Alan O. Sykes, United States Courts and the Optimal Deterrence of International Cartels: A Welfarist Perspective on Empagran, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 338 / Yale Law and Economics Research Paper, No. 340 (2007).
• Jack L. Goldsmith and Alan O. Sykes, Lex Loci Delictus and Global Economic Welfare: Spinozzi v. ITT Sheraton Corp., 120 Harvard Law Review 1137 (2007).
• Alan O. Sykes, Economics of Tort Law, Vol. I & II, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publications, 2007.
• Barton H. Thompson Jr. and James Salzman, Environmental Law and Policy, New York: Foundation Press, 2nd ed., 2007.
• Alan O. Sykes, International Law, in Handbook of Law and Economics, Vol. I, A. Mitchell Polinsky and Steven Shavell, eds., Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007.