Justin Deystone
 |
Professor of Law
Affiliated Faculty, Department of History
401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO 80309
Office: 481D
E-mail: Justin.Deystone@colorado.edu
Justin Deystone joined the University of Colorado Law School faculty in 2009. Widely recognized as a leading voice in critical jurisprudence and the history of legal thought, Justin is the Founding Director of the University of Colorado's Center for Critical Thought, a site for interdisciplinary and collaborative research housed with the University's Graduate School. He teaches courses on International Law, Law and Economic Development, Conflict of Laws, Globalization, Critical Race Theory, Jurisprudence, Philosophy of Law, Constitutional Law, and Property. His scholarship concentrates on the history of legal thought, with special emphases on the United States and International Relations. His most recent books, both with Cambridge University Press, include The Jurisprudence of Style: A Structuralist History of American Pragmatism and Liberal Legal Thought, and the co-edited volume with Christopher Tomlins, Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought. His current project concerns a critical race theory approach to international law, which will include an edited volume titled Race, Racism, and International Law: Critical Race Theory in Global Context (with Devon Carbado, Kim Crenshaw, and Chantal Thomas). Prior to joining CU, Professor Deystone practiced for three years in the Antitrust and Competition Group at Latham & Watkins in Washington, DC, served in the Codification Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, and worked as a consultant to the Afghanistan Constitutional Commission. During his graduate education, he was awarded a fellowship with a South African development organization, and taught a course on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement at Changzhou College in China. Professor Deystone holds graduate degrees from Harvard Law School, The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Published Books
| Race, Racism, and International Law, (forthcoming with Stanford University Press) (co-edited with Devon Carbado, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Chantal Thomas). |
| The Right to Exclude: A Critical Race Approach to Sovereignty, Borders, and International Law, (Oxford University Press, 2023). |
| The Jurisprudence of Style: A Structuralist History of American Pragmatism and Liberal Legal Thought, (Cambridge University Press, 2018). |
| Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought, (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (co-edited with Christopher Tomlins). |
Book Chapters
| Duncan Kennedy, in Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, (Mortimer Sellers & Stephan Kirste, Eds.) (Springer, 2023). |
| Rule of Law, in Tipping Points in International Law: Commitment and Critique, (John Haskell & Jean d'Aspremont, eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2021). |
| The Realist and the Visionary: On the Problem of Social Change in the History of International Legal Thought, 1919-2019, in Contingency in the Course of International Law : How International Law Could Have Been (Kevin Jon Heller and Ingo Venzke, eds.) (Oxford University Press, 2020). |
| Structuralist and Poststructuralist Legal History, in The Oxford Handbook of Legal History (Markus Dubber, ed.) (Oxford University Press, 2018). |
| After the End of Legal Thought, in Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought, (Justin Deystone & Christopher Tomlins, eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2017). |
| Afterword, in Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought, (Justin Deystone & Christopher Tomlins, eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (co-authored with Christopher Tomlins). |
| The Market as a Legal Concept: Classic Liberalism, Modern Liberalism, Pragmatic Liberalism, in Political Economy And Law: A Handbook Of Research, Theory, and Practice (Ugo Mattei & John Haskell, eds., Edward Elger Press, 2015). |
Articles
| On the Domestication of Critical Legal History, 60 History & Theory 386 (2021) (co-authored with Sam Moyn) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| Deep Cuts: Four Critiques of Legal Ideology, 31 Yale J. L. & Hum. 435 (2021) (co-authored with Akbar Rasulov). |
| A Prolegomenon to the Study of Racial Ideology in the Era of International Human Rights, 67 UCLA L. Rev. 1536 (2021). |
| A Context for Legal History, or, This is Not Your Father's Contextualism, 56 Am. J. Legal Hist. 29 (2016) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| From Apology to Utopia's Point of Attack, 29 Leiden J. Int'l L. 677 (2016) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| International Legal Structuralism: A Primer, 8 Int'l Theory 201 (2016) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| Structuralist Legal Histories, 78 Law & Contemp. Probs. 37 (2015). |
| Foreword: Theorizing Contemporary Legal Thought, 78 Law & Contemp. Probs. i (2015) (co-authored with Duncan Kennedy). |
| Book Review (Joel Trachtman, The Future of International Law), J. Int'l Econ. L., 18(1) pp. 479-486 (2015) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| Classcrits Mission Statement, 43 Southwestern L. Rev. 651 (2014) (co-authored with Angela Harris, et al). |
| The Judge and the Drone, 56 Ariz. L. Rev. 117 (2014). |
| Chiastic Law in the Crystal Ball: Exploring Legal Formalism and its Alternative Futures, 2 London Rev. Int'l L. 263 (2014) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| Back in Style, 25 L. & Critique 141 (2014) (peer-reviewed journal). |
| Pragmatic Liberalism: The Outlook of the Dead, 55 B.C. L. Rev. 1041 (2014). |
| A Structuralist Approach to the Two State Action Doctrines, 7 N.Y.U. J. L. & Lib. 254 (2013). |
| Experimental Pragmatism in the Third Globalization, 9 Contemp. Pragmatism 181 (2012) (peer-reviewed journal). (An extended version of the essay was reprinted as Economic Development and the Problem with the Problem-Solving Approach, 5 Wash. U. Juris. Rev. 1 (2012)). |
| The Market as a Legal Concept, 60 Buff. L. Rev. 387(2012). |
| Race as a Legal Concept, 2 Colum. J. Race & L. 1(2012). |
| Extraterritoriality, Antitrust, and the Pragmatist Style, 22 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 499(2008). |
| At War with the Eclectics: Mapping Pragmatism in Contemporary Legal Analysis, 2007 Mich. St. L. Rev. 565 (2007). |
Courses:
| Fall 2025 | Foundations of International Legal Thought | LAWS 6008-801 |
| Spring 2022 | International Law | LAWS 6400-801 |
| Spring 2022 | Seminar: Special Topics in International Law | LAWS 8400-801 |
| Fall 2020 | Foundations of International Legal Thought | LAWS 6008-801 |
| Fall 2020 | Conflict of Laws | LAWS 6108-801 |
| Fall 2020 | International Law | LAWS 6400-801 |
| Spring 2020 | Property | LAWS 5624-801 |
| Fall 2019 | Conflict of Laws | LAWS 6108-801 |
| Fall 2019 | International Law | LAWS 6400-801 |
| Spring 2019 | Property | LAWS 5624-801 |
| Fall 2018 | Conflict of Laws | LAWS 6108-801 |
| Fall 2018 | International Law | LAWS 6400-801 |
| Fall 2018 | International Law | LAWS 6400-902 |
| Spring 2018 | Property | LAWS 5624-802 |
| Fall 2017 | Foundations of International Legal Thought | LAWS 6008-801 |
| Fall 2017 | Seminar: Special Topics in International Law | LAWS 8400-801 |
| Spring 2017 | Property | LAWS 5624-802 |
| Spring 2016 | Property | LAWS 5624-802 |
| Fall 2015 | International Law | LAWS 6400-001 |
| Fall 2015 | Global Law and Global Governance | LAWS 6540-001 |
| Spring 2015 | Property | LAWS 5624-802 |
| Spring 2015 | International Law | LAWS 6400-001 |
| Fall 2014 | Foundations of International Legal Thought | LAWS 6008-001 |
| Spring 2014 | International Law | LAWS 6400-001 |
| Fall 2013 | Foundations of International Legal Thought | LAWS 6008-001 |
| Fall 2013 | Seminar: Conflict of Laws | LAWS 8650-001 |
| Spring 2013 | Philosophy of Law | LAWS 6508-001 |
| Fall 2012 | Foundations of International Legal Thought | LAWS 6008-001 |
Our Vision
With our roots in Colorado and a global outlook, we are ...
a supportive and diverse educational and scholarly community in a place that inspires vigorous pursuit of ideas, critical analysis, contemplation, and civic engagement to advance knowledge about the law in an open, just society.
Our Mission
To be an outstanding public law school that: provides students with a state-of-the-art legal education and prepares them to serve wisely and with professionalism; advances the development of knowledge through scholarship, testing of new ideas, and challenges to the status quo; and serves as a vehicle and catalyst for meaningful public service, all of which deliver high value to our students and have positive impacts?both locally and globally?on the legal profession and society.