MG
Unit: School of Law
Department: School of Law
Office location and address
WB302N
580 Massie Rd
Charlottesville,
Virginia
22903
Education
Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley 2008
J.D. University of California at Berkeley School of Law 2005
B.S. Tulane University 1999
J.D. University of California at Berkeley School of Law 2005
B.S. Tulane University 1999
Biography
Michael Gilbert teaches courses on election law, legislation, and law and economics. His current research focuses on constitutional entrenchment, campaign finance law, corruption and the design of courts. He is working on a book-length project on public law and economics. His research has appeared in multiple law reviews, peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he has lectured throughout the United States and around the world, including in Ecuador, Germany and Israel. Prior to joining the faculty, Gilbert clerked for Judge William A. Fletcher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program at the University of California, Berkeley, and he received his J.D. from Berkeley Law School. At Berkeley, Gilbert served as an articles editor on the California Law Review and received multiple distinctions, including an Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics and a grant from the National Science Foundation. In 2015 he won the UVA Student Council Distinguished Teaching Award.
Publications
Courses
Credits: 3–4
This course will examine both the theory and the practice of statutory interpretation. We will become familiar with the canons of construction frequently invoked by courts. Finally, we will consider some specialized but important topics in statutory interpretation, such as doctrines of severability and pre-emption.
Credits: 3
A web of constitutional, statutory, and judge-made laws regulate the American political process. This course will examine these laws and their implications for three broad and important issues: participation, aggregation, and governance. Participation involves the right to vote and various restrictions thereon, aggregation involves apportionment and redistricting, and governance involves campaign finance and the role of political parties.
Credits: 3
The economic analysis of law has generated foundational insights and a handful of Nobel prizes. It guides many scholars, judges, practitioners, and policy-makers, and it provides one of the major theoretical perspectives on the study of law. This course introduces the topic.
Credits: 1
How do less-developed countries and nations in transition, independently or with outside assistance, facilitate the rule of law? This seminar will explore that question through the writings and experience of scholars, policymakers, and others working in the field of law and development.
Credits: 3
This directed study is one part of a two-part full-time externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
Credits: 1
Eligible students receive credit for serving as research assistants supervised by selected law school faculty members.
Credits: 1
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member
Credits: 3
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 3
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This is the first semester of a yearlong seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
Credits: 1
This is the second semester of a yearlong seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
Credits: 3
This course will explore how economic reasoning informs constitutional and public law processes, including bargaining, voting, delegating, and enforcement. We will consider the incentive effects of legal rules and institutional designs and evaluate their implications for public and semi-public goods (like civil rights and international cooperation on climate change) and club and private goods (like welfare benefits and the right to immigrate).
Credits: 1
In each meeting, a leading scholar will present a current legal research paper using the methodology of law and economics.
Credits: 3
This class will examine how the topic of corruption is addressed in several different legal domains including criminal law (bribery, extortion, fraud, and deprivation of honest services, etc.), election law, constitutional law (including the Emoluments Clauses and the First Amendment's treatment of campaign finance laws) and others. In addition, the course will explore how best to define and understand corruption.
Credits: 15
For doctoral research taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.