Margaret F. Brinig

Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law

Office Number: 345 Law School
Telephone: 574.631.2303
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: Margaret.Brinig.1@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Andy Mason

Margaret F. Brinig is the Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law at the University of Notre Dame and the Associate Dean for Faculty Research. Professor Brinig came to Notre Dame in 2006 from the College of Law at the University of Iowa, where she was the William G. Hammond Professor of Law. She earned her B.A. in History in 1970 from Duke University, where she was an Angier B. Duke Scholar. In 1973, she earned her J.D. from Seton Hall University, Cum Laude, where she was the Notes Editor for the Seton Hall Law Review. After graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Theodore I. Botter of the Superior Court of New Jersey (Law and Appellate Divisions). She then taught at George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, Virginia for nearly 25 years. During that time, she earned a M.A. (1993) and Ph.D. in Economics (1994) from George Mason and won the University Distinguished Professor award (1993). She also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (1980-83) and directed the legal writing program (1991-93). While at Iowa, she served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development.

Professor Brinig is the author of two casebooks (in Family Law and Quantitative Methods for Lawyers), two edited collections, and a handbook for Virginia family lawyers. In 2000, Harvard University Press published her From Contract to Covenant: Beyond the Law and Economics of the Family. She has also written more than seventy articles and book chapters, and has worked with coauthors in law, economics, sociology, medicine and public health from all over the United States and from Canada. Professor Brinig has been active in the American Association of Laws Schools (for which she has been an officer in the Family Law, Socioeconomics, and Law and Economics Sections), the Canadian and American Law and Economics Associations (on both of which she has served on the Executive Committees), the International Society of Family Law (for which she has long been the newsletter editor and an elected member of the Executive Committee), and the American Law Institute (for which she was a consultant to the Principles of Family Dissolution). She referees for numerous journals and presses in law and economics including the Journal of Legal Studies, the American Law and Economics Review and Yale University Press.

She teaches family law and related courses, contracts, and law and economics. In the past she has also taught alternative dispute resolution and insurance among a wide variety of other courses.

Her primary research and writing field is the law and economics of the family and she is especially interested in empirical answers to questions addressed by law. She has also written a number of pieces on contracts, mediation, and insurance.

LAW60105, Contracts

LAW70503, Family Law

LAW73145, Law and Economics

Faculty Expertise Areas

• Contracts
• Dispute resolution
• Family law, economics of the family, family and social policy
• Law and economics

Books

Carl E. Schneider and Margaret F. Brinig, An Invitation to Family Law: Process, Problems and Possibilities (Third Edition) (West Publishing Company, 2006); Teacher’s Manual, 2001

Margaret F. Brinig, From Contract to Covenant: Beyond the Law and Economics of the Family (Harvard University Press, 2000)

Margaret F. Brinig, Carl E. Schneider and Lee H. Teitelbaum, Family Law in Action (Anderson Publishing, 1999)

Articles

Extending Default Rules Beyond Purely Economic Relationships, 33 Florida State University Law Review 779-824 (2006).

Margaret Brinig, Gerald Jogerst, Jeanette Daly, Jeffrey Dawson and Gretchen Schmuch, Lawmaking by Public Welfare Professionals, 5 Whittier Journal of Child & Family Advocacy 57 (2006)

Gerald G. Jogerst , Jeanette M. Daly, Margaret F. Brinig & Stephanos Bibas., “The Association Between Statutory Penalties and Domestic Elder Abuse Investigations,”28 Journal of Crime and Justice 51 (2006)

Margaret F. Brinig, Does Parental Autonomy Require Equal Custody at Divorce? , 65 Louisiana Law Review 1345 (2005)

Margaret F. Brinig, Unhappy Contracts: The Case of Divorce, 1 Review of Law and Economics 241 (2005)

Gerald J. Jogerst et al., APS Investigative Systems Associated with Country Reported Domestic Elder Abuse, 16 Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect 1 (2004)

Margaret F. Brinig & Steven L. Nock, Marry Me, Bill: Should Cohabitation be the (Legal) Default Option? 64 Louisiana Law Review 403 (2004).

Margaret F. Brinig, Gerald J. Jogerst, Jeanette M. Daly, Gretchen A. Schmuch, and Jeffrey Dawson, The Public Choice of Elder Abuse Law, 33 Journal of Legal Studies 517 (2004).

Margaret F. Brinig, The Role of Socioeconomics in Teaching Family Law, 41 San Diego Law Review 177(2004).