Take a visit to room 4178, and you will find the office of Professor Jedediah Purdy. Professor Purdy joined Duke in 2004. Since then, he has taught courses in Constitutional Law Environmental Law, and Property. Dressed in his customary jeans and boots, Professor Purdy’s aspect is as much that of a cowboy as of a law professor. Like a modern-day cowboy, Professor Purdy has spent years at the frontiers of law, on a personal quest to find the meaning of freedom. Now that he has thoroughly studied freedom, Professor Purdy is seeking out a new frontier. In the future, Professor Purdy’s work on the frontiers will involve protecting “the Range” from overuse and depletion.
Professor Purdy’s scholarly accomplishments are impressive, including his authoring three books and fourteen articles. However, equally as striking as these accomplishments is Professor Purdy’s personality. Those who have met him know that he has a quick, accurate, and refreshingly-unique wit. And the caricature he prominently displays in his office shows that Professor Purdy is not afraid to make fun of himself.
I sat down with Professor Purdy, in order to discuss his life, goals, and interests:

Peter McCary: Is there a scholarly topic or theme that really seizes your interest more than any other? If so, what is it?
Jedediah Purdy: Everything I’ve written until now has touched on the topic of freedom. Going forward I see myself working more on environmental law and questions of sustainability because I’ve finished up with the topic of freedom and said what I have to say.

PM: You have an extensive list of articles you’ve written, books you’ve published, and presentations you’ve given. Is there one that you’re especially proud of?
JP: I really like the book manuscript I’ve just finished -- which is on the history of American ideas of freedom -- called A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebellion and Tradition in the American Vision of Freedom. For a while I’ll be identified with my first book, For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today. There’s a lot of me in that book, even if I wouldn’t write everything today that I wrote then.
PM: Can you give me an example of a “part” of you that is in that book?
JP: People would normally say that parts of it are autobiographical. The book was a cultural back story about what it was like to be growing up. It’s saying “this is how the world looks through my eyes.” The whole book says “this is how it feels to be me.”

PM: Is it true that you won’t be at Duke next year?
JP: I’m spending the year as visiting faculty at Yale. It’s where I went to law school seven years ago. So, it’s fun to be a colleague to the people who taught me. Then, I’m headed to Harvard for a semester. I’ll split that year between Harvard and Duke.

PM: Do you have a favorite case?
JP: I really like Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) and Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), because they both confront how property rights emerge from political decisions, but they take different approaches to how to treat people on the losing end of those decisions.

PM: I understand that you once worked in construction. That sounds like an interesting story. Would you mind sharing it?
JP: For several summers I worked for my dad, who was a timber frame carpenter. I helped to build some house frames and additions. I think I did that the last few years of high school. I had an offer to get a union card and work in Akron, but I didn’t take it. In some ways I regret not doing that just for the experience.

PM: In a recent issue of The Devil’s Advocate I recommended several
exorbitantly-priced additions to Duke Law School. Do you think that we could reduce the costs by giving an admissions bias to people with previous construction experience?
JP: I never would have thought of it myself, but that doesn’t make it wrong.
PM: Are there any other interesting tidbits that you can share about yourself?
JP: There were years when I didn’t wear pants, and there were years when I rode a motorcycle. But, they didn’t coincide.

PM: Finally, in the course of your research you’ve had to study the Common Law. So, the Common Law: common or uncommonly good?
JP: The Common Law: uncommonly awesome!