California Western -- Donald J. Smythe 
Joanna Sax Donald J. Smythe

Professor of Law

Ph.D., 1992 Yale, J.D., 1999 University of Virginia

Courses Taught: Property, sales, secured transactions, legal analysis, and law and economics.

Professor Smythe joined California Western School of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law in 2001.  He left California Western in 2004 to become an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA.  He returned to California Western as an Associate Professor of Law in 2007 and became a Professor of Law in 2011.

 

Here is a brief CV: 

 

Research and Scholarship

 

Professor Smythe’s research and scholarship spans topics in contracts, commercial law, antitrust, and corporate law.  It uses methods drawn from economic theory, econometrics, history, and social network theory.  Most of his work has a practical purpose, whether it is to evaluate and explain the role of specific legal doctrines, critique particular cases, advocate for certain doctrinal developments, or improve our understanding of how and why the law changes.

 

Here are links to some of his articles:

 

The Rise of the Corporation, the Birth of Public Relations, and the Foundations of Modern Political Economy, 50 WASHBURN LAW JOURNAL 635 (2011).                       http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1924506

 

The Scope of a Bargain and the Value of a Promise, 60 SOUTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW 203 (2008). 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1230362

 

Commercial Law in the Cracks of Judicial Federalism, 56 CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 451 (2007). 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=931264

 

The Supreme Court and the Trusts: Antitrust and the Foundations of Modern American Business Regulation from Knight to Swift, 39 U.C. DAVIS LAW REVIEW 85 (2005).  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=799307

 

Bounded Rationality, the Doctrine of Impracticability, and the Governance of Relational Contracts, 13 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERDISCIPLINARY LAW JOURNAL 227 (2004). 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=799328

 

You can find some of Professor Smythe’s other papers on his SSRN Author page.  Here is the link: http://ssrn.com/author=495045

 

 

dsmythe@cwsl.edu     
619-515-1562
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101