Update: Second Edition of International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution Forthcoming from Oxford University Press; and see also Advice for Prospective Libertarian Law Students.

[Update: see various biographical pieces on my publications page, including Alan D. Bergman, Adopting Liberty: The Stephan Kinsella Story (2025).]

As most of my libertarian friends and readers know, I’ve published for a number of years books and articles in the area of political and legal theory. I’ve also engaged over the years in more practical legal writing, from law review articles to authored and edited books (I maintain a separate website, KinsellaLaw.com, for my legal practice). My legal writing has primarily covered intellectual property and patent law, and international law topics. I started writing in both areas–libertarianism and law–at the beginning of my legal career, in the early 1990s.

Book covers

The way I got into legal publishing may be of some interest to aspiring legal scholars and law students. Some of my early legal writing was based in part on some of the international business law I learned during my LL.M. at University of London–many of these were published in the Russian Oil & Gas Guide and other fora, while I was an associate practicing oil & gas law at Jackson Walker in Houston, at the encouragement of my boss and mentor, Lanier Yeates. (For more on how I ended up in London, see The Start of my Legal Career: Past, Present and Future: Survival Stories of Lawyers.)

These were all co-authored with my friend and colleague Paul E. Comeaux. We put a lot of this together into a more comprehensive law review article, “Reducing Political Risk in Developing Countries: Bilateral Investment Treaties, Stabilization Clauses, and MIGA & OPIC Investment Insurance,” 15 New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law 1 (1994). This piece was scholarly yet practical. Shortly after the piece came out, we were approached by Susan DeMaio, a project editor at Oceana Publications, an international law publisher. Susan suggested we turn the article into a book. Paul and I did this, resulting in Protecting Foreign Investment Under International Law: Legal Aspects of Political Risk (Oceana Publications, 1997). Years later, I co-authored International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide (Oxford University Press, 2005), a successor volume to the 1997 book. This was published with Oxford which had by then acquired Oceana; my co-author was Noah D. Rubins, an American international arbitration attorney in Paris. (A second edition was published in 2020.) [continue reading…]

From the site of my publisher, Quid Pro Books, information about the release this month of my new book, Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary (with Gregory Rome; Quid Pro Books 2011). It’s available now at Amazon in paper and kindle formats, and in hardback later this month. Also available in other ebook formats. (Additional information at the dictionary’s website, Civil-Law-Dictionary.com.)

A Dictionary of Civil Law Terminology in Louisiana: Usufruct and Naked Owners Are Explained to Common Lawyers and Civilians

I have for years edited or co-edited three legal treatises, first for Oceana Publications, then for Oxford University Press, and now, for West/Thomson Reuters. These are:

• Trademark Practice and Forms (Oceana/Oxford, 2001-2011; West/Thomson Reuters 2011-present)
• World Online Business Law (Oceana/Oxford 2003-2011; West/Thomson Reuters 2011-present)
• Digest of Commercial Laws of the World (Oceana/Oxford 1998-2011; West/Thomson Reuters 2011-present)

I look forward to working with the new publisher.

This was a Texas Lawyer piece from early 2009 concerning an interesting development at the beginning of my legal career in 1991–92, as a result of the last recession. Wait, make that three recessions ago. This explains how I ended up getting an LL.M. in London.

(See also New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing.)

Past, Present and Future: Survival Stories of Lawyers

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys and Miriam Rozen

Texas Lawyer

April 27, 2009

Thompson & Knight partner Paul Comeaux Image: Mark Graham

Editor’s note: These are grim times for law students and associates, with Texas firms laying off lawyers, cutting summer associate programs and deferring start dates for incoming first-year associates due to a troubled economy. So Texas Lawyer decided to talk with attorneys who have experienced tough economic times in the past and those dealing with the current fallout to put a face to what’s happening in the legal employment market.

BigTex firms have scaled back before because of economic conditions. In 1991, for instance, Dallas firm Jackson Walker asked a number of its incoming first-year associates to consider a one-year deferment in

exchange for a stipend. Two lawyers who took the firm up on that offer say it turned out to be a positive experience and helped boost their careers. But does the past offer lessons for today’s associates? We talked to a lawyer laid off from a BigTex firm who’s hunting for a new job, as well as to a Bracewell & Giuliani associate who transferred to the New York City office when she noticed her Houston corporate practice was slowing down. Here are their stories.

Europe or Bust

Friends Paul Comeaux and Stephan Kinsella were preparing to graduate from Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1991 and start work as first-year associates at Jackson Walker in Houston when they received a tempting offer from the firm: If they deferred their start date for a year, the firm would pay them $21,000.

While $21,000 doesn’t sound like much today — and it was only a net of $14,000 because it included a $7,000 acceptance bonus — Comeaux notes that his first-year starting salary was $55,000. That’s about a third of the current starting salaries for first-year lawyers at BigTex firms.

“They had too many lawyers coming in,” Kinsella says, noting that Jackson Walker wanted up to 15 of the incoming associates to take the deferment, and he recalls that about a dozen did.

Kinsella says he and Comeaux discussed their options, and both decided to take the deferment and use the time to get an LL.M. degree in international law from King’s College at the University of London. [continue reading…]

LSU Law Professor Saúl Litvinoff passed away yesterday. As noted in the LSU Law Center press release about this, Litvinoff was a true giant in the field of civil law scholarship.

Professor Emeritus and Boyd Professor of Law Saúl Litvinoff, whose impact on the legal traditions of Louisiana spanned more than 43 years, died earlier today. [continue reading…]

My article “Radical Patent Reform Is Not on the Way” was published today (Oct. 1, 2009) in Mises Daily.

***

Hardly a day passes when we do not hear of one patent abuse or another.[1] Ridiculous patents are issued or filed and companies are enjoined from selling their products. Judgments are issued, and settlements reached, for billions of dollars. (See the Appendix for examples of ridiculous patents and outrageous judgments.) Not surprisingly, there is a growing demand for reform of our patent system.[2]

Whether their demands are modest or radical, the reformers share the belief that the patent system is broken; has gotten out of hand; and is not in sync with our fast-paced, high-tech, open-sourced, digitized world — in short, that it needs to be fixed.

FULL ARTICLE

[Mises crosspost]

In the Fall 2009 issue of LSU Alumni Magazine, “Tigers in Print” section.

After launching in 2002 as one of the first blawgs (see my July 23, 2003 post, Blawgs; also Blawgs: More Than Just Fluff, Corporate Counsel, March 2003;  Legal and Appellate Weblogs: What They Are, Why You Should Read Them, And Why You Should Consider Starting Your Own, Spring 2003), my blog went into substantial hibernation as I concentrated on my practice. Part of the reason was my increasingly-outdated web design.  I’ve now re-launched the blawg, with PJ Doland’s help, moving it from its 7-year old, now-outmoded PHP-based design to a modern, new WordPress design (using the Thesis theme–simple, plain, and elegant).

Stay tuned…

See Book Recommendations: Private, International, and Common Law; Legal Theory