Faculty Feature: Professor Vikram D. Amar

Professor Vikram D. Amar is one of the most respected, and most frequently cited, authorities on constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure. He returned to King Hall as a Distinguished Professor of Law in 2023 after serving as Dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign College of Law for eight years. He was the first American-born person of Indian descent to serve as Dean of a major American law school. Before that, he was a King Hall professor and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He has also taught at Berkeley School of Law, UC Law San Francisco (then Hastings College of Law), and UCLA School of Law.

In addition to co-authoring leading textbooks on constitutional law, federal practice and procedure, and civil procedure, Amar has published more than 60 articles in leading law reviews. Major newspapers and magazines have published dozens of his op-ed pieces, and local and national radio and television networks frequently turn to him for commentary on legal issues. He also writes a biweekly column for Justia.com.

Amar clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. He is thought to be the first person of South Asian heritage to clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court. Afterward, he handled complex civil and white-collar criminal matters as an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

What drew you to the law and to academia?

Those are two separate questions. I decided to pursue law school when I was a sophomore in college. I studied a lot of American history and economics, and both of those disciplines seemed very connected to many important legal questions. I also began to read some books and watch some PBS programs concerning the Supreme Court and related public policy debates, and the distinctively legal style of analysis they introduced me to stimulated my interest.

As for teaching, I think I knew by the time I left law school that I would at least try academia to see if it was a good fit. I very much enjoyed the scholarly work I did on the Yale Law Journal (both on my own Note and in helping to select and edit outside articles.) I had two years of post-law-school clerkships lined up, and I knew I wanted to practice for a while after that, but I also knew that I would go on the teaching market after a few years at a law firm or in government practice. I thought (and turned out to be right) that I would greatly enjoy the latitude to spend my time and mental energy on questions that I found intriguing and important (and not just questions that my clients needed help on, which often but not always were interesting to me). On top of that, I expected that I would enjoy being in the classroom, since I've always liked teaching things to people. Finally, I reasoned that if I tried but didn't like academia, I could always go back to practice and make a lot of money. So there wasn't much downside.

You often appear on radio and television and write op-eds for newspapers and magazines. Why is it important to you to engage with the broader public?

Especially in my primary field of constitutional law, it is important for non-lawyers to understand the basic principles and values. If only experts understand basic constitutional ideas, then our Constitution can't meaningfully live up to its ambition to be of, and for, the people. I've long believed that constitutional ideas and theories that can't be explained effectively to an intelligent and willing non-lawyer are often not very useful in the real world. And remember that our Constitution was designed to be more than an elegant political science dissertation; it was intended to be a framework for a durable and increasingly just government and society. 

What do you most enjoy about teaching? What do you hope students gain from your courses?

I think most law students at good schools like King Hall would, because of raw talent, end up being good lawyers even if their teachers weren't that great. But to move from being a good lawyer to a great lawyer, it often helps to have effective guidance from faculty operating at the highest level of the profession. I try to model first-rate lawyering skills, techniques and professional ethics. I hope students learn from me not just what the law in a particular field is, but also (from my example) how one might profitably approach the questions raised by that field.

What would your students be surprised to learn about you?

Maybe how much sports, TV, and movie trivia I have mastered over the years.

Do you have any hobbies?

I would hope everyone has some hobbies! I enjoy domestic and international travel, and watching many sports. I spend a lot of time with family and close friends. I also devote much time to outdoor activities such as hiking, backpacking and snowshoeing. I also follow American politics rather carefully. And I binge watch too many TV shows and movies. But I'm also trying to read more books, some of which relate to law and many of which don't.

Of what are you proudest?

I am very proud of my wonderful family and amazing group of friends, and of my body of academic and lay-educational work, especially as regards important questions concerning the American democratic process. I am also proud of the fact that I generally (and I hope increasingly) try to act in a principled way.

Do you have one piece of advice for King Hall law students?

I probably have many, but here's one: Understand that while in the law there sometimes/often? can be more than one plausible way to approach a question, that doesn't mean all answers are equally good. A proffered theory or approach to a legal puzzle may be imperfect, but unless you can come up with another theory or approach that, on balance, has fewer significant flaws, you can't justifiably reject the one whose imperfections you might identify.