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Charles Fried

Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard University

Areas of expertise

  • - Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
  • - Litigation and Legislation
  • - Contract Law
  • - Constitutional Law
  • - Employment Law
  • - U.S. Supreme Court
  • - Evidence: Expert Evidence

Major works

Fried, Charles. Contract as Promise: A Theory of Contractual Obligation Paperback (Oxford University Press 2015).; Gregory, Fried & Charles Fried. Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror (W.W. Norton & Co. 2010).; Fried, Charles. Modern Liberty and the Limits of Government (W.W. Norton and Company 2006).; Fried, Charles. Saying What the Law Is: The Constitution in the Supreme Court (Harvard University Press 2004).; Fried, Charles & David Rosenberg. Making Tort Law: What Should Be Done and Who Should Do It (AEI Press 2003).; Fried, Charles. "An Unreasonable Reaction to a Reasonable Decision" in Bush v.Gore: The Question of Legitimacy (Yale University Press, 2002).; Fried, Charles. "Five to Four: Reflections on the School Voucher Case," 116 Harvard Law Review 163 (2002).; Fried, Charles. "Perfect Freedom or Perfect Control?" 114 Harvard Law Review 606 (2000).; Fried, Charles. "Perfect Freedom, Perfect Justice," 78 Boston University Law Review 3 (1998).; Fried, Charles. Order and Law: Arguing the Reagan Revolution -- A Firsthand Account (New York: Simon & Schuster 1991).; Fried, Charles. Contract As Promise: A Theory of Contractual Obligation (Harvard University Press 1981).; Fried, Charles. Contract as Promise: A Theory of Contractual Obligation Paperback (Oxford University Press 2015).

About me

Charles Fried was the Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he taught from 1961 to 2023. Most recently, Fried taught Contracts and Constitutional Law. He was also the Solicitor General of the United States from 1985 to 1989, where he argued 25 cases in front of the Supreme Court. Fried was also an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1995 to 1999. Fried authored many books, including Anatomy of Values , Right and Wrong , Modern Liberty , Contract as Promise , Making Tort Law , and Saying Where the Law Is: The Constitution in the Supreme Court , in addition to more than 30 journal articles.