NYU School of Law is a law school identified in The Bob Zadek Show as the academic affiliation of two recurring guests, Professor Richard Epstein and Professor Rachel Barkow. The excerpts do not describe the school’s founding, curriculum, or history; they establish only the institutional positions its faculty members held and the way host Bob Zadek introduced them.
Richard Epstein
Bob Zadek introduced Richard Epstein as a professor at NYU School of Law in a 2017 episode on trade, describing him as “Professor Richard Epstein at NYU School of Law” and noting that Epstein had written over 15 books, was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and had taught as professor of law emeritus and senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Trump Vs. Free Trade with Richard Epstein (2017).
In a December 2022 episode, Zadek described Epstein as teaching law at NYU School of Law, “where he has founded and heads a classical liberal institute run through the university.” Zadek again listed Epstein’s Hoover Institution senior fellowship and his senior lectureship at the University of Chicago, and called him the ideal guest to discuss the newly enacted California FAST Act, which Zadek characterized as seeking to socialize the entire California fast food industry by putting the entire industry under strict governmental control Which Side Are You On? (2022).
A January 2023 episode repeated the same introduction: Epstein teaches law at NYU School of Law, where he founded and heads the Classical Liberal Institute, run through the university; he is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. The episode described the newly enacted California FAST Recovery Act as seeking to socialize the entire California fast food industry by putting it under strict governmental control, and noted that other states were looking with curiosity, and perhaps envy, at what California had done California Passes the Worst Piece of Legislation Since AB 5 (2023).
Rachel Barkow
In an October 2019 episode on criminal justice, Bob Zadek introduced Rachel Elise Barkow as the Segal Family Professor of Regulatory Law and Policy and the faculty director of the Center for Administration of Criminal Justice at New York University School of Law, which he identified as his alma mater. Zadek also noted that Barkow was a member of the United States Sentencing Commission and a member of the Manhattan DA’s Conviction Integrity Policy Advisory Panel, and that she had clerked for Justice Scalia and Judge Larry Silberman of the DC Circuit. He described her book Prisoners of Politics rachel_barkow_on_fixing_the_fundamentals_of_criminal_justi.
Barkow opened by correcting the introduction: she said she was no longer on the Sentencing Commission, making that clear so that she would be able to speak freely about it. Zadek acknowledged the correction rachel_barkow_on_fixing_the_fundamentals_of_criminal_justi.
The episode framed the discussion around the relationship between citizens and government, with Zadek arguing that protecting liberty and persons and property from those who would do harm is government’s most sacred role, and that the criminal justice system is one of the tools government uses to that end. He said that taking away someone’s liberty is a very big deal, that liberty is what the country was founded to protect, and that when government acts in the people’s name to put someone in a cage or deprive them of life, that cannot be taken lightly. He described mass incarceration as too many people in prison for too long, for the wrong reasons, with a system that is counterproductive rachel_barkow_on_fixing_the_fundamentals_of_criminal_justi.
Across episodes
Epstein appears in three episodes in the excerpts — June 2017, December 2022, and January 2023 — and his NYU affiliation is stated identically each time, with the later two episodes adding that he founded and heads a classical liberal institute run through the university; the excerpts show no development in how the school is described. Barkow appears in one episode, where her NYU title and directorship are given and she corrects the record on her Sentencing Commission membership.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when NYU School of Law was founded, where it is located, who its dean is, what courses it offers, or how it is ranked. They do not describe the Classical Liberal Institute’s founding date, funding, or programming beyond the fact that Epstein founded and heads it and that it is run through the university. They do not say what the Center for Administration of Criminal Justice does. No excerpt states what the California FAST Act’s provisions are, what it was numbered, or when it was signed.