Biography and Academic Career
Born December 25, 1937, Gerhard Casper grew up in Hamburg, Germany. He earned his first law degree from the University of Hamburg in 1961. In 1962, he received his LL.M. from Yale University. He then attended the University of Freiburg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1964.
In the fall of 1964, Casper immigrated to the United States and spent two years as an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1966, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. Between 1979 and 1987, he served as dean of the law school. In 1989, Casper was appointed provost of the University of Chicago. He served as president of Stanford University from 1992 to 2000.
Casper has written and taught primarily in the fields of constitutional law, constitutional history, comparative law, and legal theory. Among his books is Separating Power (Harvard University Press, 1997). From 1977 to 1990, he was an editor of The Supreme Court Review.
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