- John Roberts
John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27 1955) is the seventeenth and current Chief Justice of the United States. Before joining the Supreme Court on September 29, 2005, Roberts was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Previously, he spent 14 years in private law practice and held positions in Republican administrations in the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of the White House Counsel.
- Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist and has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991. He is the second African American to serve on the nation's highest court, after Justice Thurgood Marshall. Thomas's career in the Supreme Court has seen him take a conservative approach to cases while adhering to the postulates of originalism.
- Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia (born March 11, 1936) is an American jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Widely regarded as the intellectual anchor of the Court's conservative wing, he is a vigorous proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation, and a passionate critic of the idea of a Living Constitution.
- Samuel Alito
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. (born April 1, 1950) is the junior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Educated at Yale Law School, Alito served as a United States attorney and a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit prior to joining the Supreme Court.
- Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in "Brown v. Board of Education". Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908.
- William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 - September 3 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States. Considered a conservative, Rehnquist favored a federalism under which the states meaningfully exercised governmental power. Under this view of federalism, the Supreme Court of the United States, for the first time since the 1930s, …
- Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt (July 11 1888 - April 7 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and professor of law. Schmitt was born the son of a small businessman in Plettenberg, Westphalia on July 11 1888; he studied political science and law in Berlin, Munich and Strasbourg and took his graduation and state exams in the then-German Strasbourg in 1915. He became professor at the University of Berlin in 1933, the same year that he entered the Nazi party (NSDAP).
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15 1933, Brooklyn, New York) is an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to joining the Court, she was a professor at Rutgers University School of Law, Newark School of Law and Columbia Law School, a litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union, and a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. During much of her life, she has been active in the women's rights movement, …
- Ibn Hazm
Ibn Hazm "in full" "Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm" (Arabic :أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم) - sometimes with "al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī" as well was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher, litterateur, historian, jurist and theologian born in Córdoba, present day Spain.
- Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) has been an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1988. Appointed by conservative President Ronald Reagan, he acts as the Court's swing vote in many cases, and as a result has held special prominence in many politically charged 5-4 decisions.
- Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork (born March 1, 1927) is a conservative American legal scholar who advocates the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, acting Attorney General, and circuit judge for United States Court of Appeals. In 1987, he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan, but he was not confirmed by the Senate. Currently, Bork is a lawyer, law professor, best-selling author, …
- Alex Kozinski
Judge Alex Kozinski (born July 23, 1950) is a judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a popular essayist.
- William Blackstone
Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 - 14 February 1780) was an English jurist and professor who produced the historical and analytic treatise on the common law called "Commentaries on the Laws of England", first published in four volumes over 1765-1769. It had an extraordinary success, reportedly bringing the author £14,000, and still remains an important source on classical views of the common law and its principles.
- John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is currently the most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He joined the Court in 1975 and is the oldest and longest serving incumbent member of the Court. Although he was appointed to the court by a Republican President, Gerald R. Ford, Stevens is widely regarded as the anchor of the Court's liberal wing. He is the only current Associate Justice to have served under three Chief Justices.
- Stephen Breyer
Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. Since 1994, he has served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court. Following a clerkship with Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1964, …
- Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham - June 6, 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was a political radical and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law. He is best known as an early advocate of utilitarianism and animal rights who influenced the development of liberalism. Bentham was one of the most influential utilitarians, partially through his writings but particularly through his students all around the world.
- Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German Jewish political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she always refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular". She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world."
- Paul Kirchhof
Paul Kirchhof is a German jurist and tax law expert. He is also a professor of law, member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and a former judge in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ("Bundesverfassungsgericht"), the highest court in Germany. Kirchhof obtained a doctorate at the early age of 25 having studied law in Freiburg and Munich.
- Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff , Secretary of Homeland Security, stated in a speech that "in setting up the new center, we've reorganized the way we combat these criminal organizations. And we really emphasized and facilitated a team approach at all levels of government and with the private sector to make sure we're bringing all the elements of national power to bear in dealing with what is a national and transnational problem."
- Tacitus
Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56 - ca. 117) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works-the "Annals" and the "Histories"-examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors.
- Edward Coke
Sir Edward Coke (pronounced "cook") (1 February 1552 - 3 September 1634), was an early English colonial entrepreneur and jurist whose writings on the English common law were the definitive legal texts for some 300 years. Coke was born at Mileham, Norfolk, the son of a London barrister from a Norfolk family. He was educated at Norwich School and then Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a Member of Parliament in 1589, …
- Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
- Ulpian
Domitius Ulpianus (died 228), anglicized as Ulpian, was a Roman jurist of Tyrian ancestry. The time and place of his birth are unknown, but the period of his literary activity was between AD 211 and 222. He made his first appearance in public life as assessor in the auditorium of Papinian and member of the council of Septimius Severus; under Caracalla he was master of the requests ("magister libellorum").
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (March 8, 1841 - March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932. Noted for his long service, his concise and pithy opinions, and his deference to the decisions of elected legislatures, he is one of the most widely-cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his "clear and present danger" majority opinion in the 1919 case of "Schenck v. United States", …
- Matthew Hale
Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England, was born at Alderley, Gloucestershire, where his father, a retired barrister, had a small estate.
- Hans Kelsen
Hans Kelsen (October 11, 1881 - April 19, 1973) was an Austrian-American jurist.
- Paul
Julius Paulus (second century AD), also known as Paulus or Paul, was an influential Roman jurist whose writings feature prominently in Justinian's "Digest".
- Joseph Story
Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 - September 10, 1845), American jurist, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts. His father was Elisha Story (1743-1805), a member of the Sons of Liberty, who took part in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. He fought in the battle of Bunker Hill and at Lexington and Concord. He was surgeon in Colonel Little's Essex Regiment and served with Washington at Long Island, White Plains, and Trenton.
- Michael Fox
Michael Fox (b. London, England on March 8, 1934) is an Israeli-British lawyer and founder of Herzog, Fox & Neeman (the largest law firm in Israel and the former law firm of "Fox & Gibbons" (UK, merged into Denton Wilde Sapte). Fox received his LL.B degree ("with honours") from King's College London, and was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England (1958) and to the Israel Bar (1969).
- Roy Moore
Roy Moore is a controversial American jurist and politician noted for his refusal, as the elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse despite orders from a federal court judge to do so. On November 13, 2003 Alabama's Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed him from his post as Chief Justice. In the years preceding his election to the Alabama Supreme Court, …
- Benjamin N. Cardozo
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (May 24, 1870-July 9, 1938) is considered one of the greatest American jurists, and is remembered not only for his landmark decisions on negligence but also his modesty, philosophy, and writing style, which is considered remarkable for its prose and vividness. Critics, however, decry his opinions as exercises in verbosity which fail to set forth usable, guiding legal principles.
- Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis was an American litigator, Supreme Court Justice, advocate of privacy, and developer of the Brandeis Brief. In addition, he helped lead the American Zionist movement. Justice Brandeis was appointed by Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1916 (sworn-in on June 5), and served until 1939.
- Hugo Black
Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886-September 25, 1971) was an American politician and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party, Black represented the state of Alabama in the United States Senate from 1926 to 1937, and served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Widely regarded as one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century, …
- Christian Thomasius
Christian Thomasius (January 1, 1655-September 23, 1728), was a German jurist and philosopher
- Gustav Radbruch
Gustav Radbruch, born November 21, 1878 in Lübeck; died November 23, 1949 in Heidelberg, was a German law professor and political figure.
- Serge Brammertz
Serge Brammertz is currently the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He was a federal prosecutor in Belgium from 1997 to 2002. On January 11 2006 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him head of the International Investigation Commission into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. As such, he replaces Detlev Mehlis who stepped down in December 2005. He is also a former Professor of law at the University of Liège.
- Kenneth Anderson
Kenneth Anderson is a law professor at Washington College of Law, American University, a research fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a blogger. Anderson was the legal editor of Crimes of War, a book about international humanitarian law (W.W. Norton, 1999). He is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.
- Fritz Bauer
Fritz Bauer, born on July 16 1903 in Stuttgart, Germany -- died on July 1 1968 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German judge and prosecutor.
- John Selden
John Selden (December 16, 1584 - November 30, 1654) was an English jurist, legal antiquary and oriental scholar. He was known as a polymath of astounding intellectual depth and breadth; even John Milton, one of the greatest luminaries of 17th century England, hailed Selden as "the chief of learned men reputed in this land." He was born at Salvington, in the parish of West Tarring, Sussex (now part of the town of Worthing). His father, another John Selden, had a small farm.
- John Austin
John Austin (1790 - 1859) was a noted British jurist and wrote extensively in the philosophy of law and jurisprudence. Austin served in the army in Sicily and Malta, but sold his commission to study law. He was called to the Bar in 1818. He discontinued his practice shortly after, devoted himself to the study of law as a science, and became Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of London (now University College London) 1826-32.