Riaz Tejani Ph.D., J.D.
Professor
School of Business & Society
Education
- Ph.D., Princeton University
- J.D., University of Southern California Law School
Professional Background
Riaz Tejani is professor in the School of Business & Society where he teaches courses in law, ethics, and society. His research generally has explored the role of law in neoliberal social, political, and corporate organizational life. His current project investigates ethics differentials in the Law & Economics movement with special interest in its treatments of distributive justice, social inequality, and organizational ethics. Tejani's first book, Law Mart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools (Stanford, 2017), was an ethnographic account of for-profit legal education during and after the global financial crisis. His second, Law and Society Today (University of California, 2019), critically surveyed contemporary themes in sociolegal studies. And his third book, Law and Economics: New Trajectories in Law (Routledge, 2023), was a critical introduction to Law & Economics for sociolegal and humanities scholars.
Tejani has served on corporate and nonprofit boards and remains a public arbitrator for the Financial Industries Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He is co-director of the Law and Society Association's CRN 28 on New Legal Realism, and a member of the board of conveners for the Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Workshop. His most recent articles are forthcoming or published in Law and Society Review, Alabama Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, and American Ethnologist. Tejani's work has been cited or reviewed in publications such as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, The Nation, Huffington Post, Salon, and NPR. He holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of California Gould School of Law, where he was a fellow at the Center for Law, History, and Culture. Since launching his teaching career in 2011, Tejani has won multiple student, collegiate, and University awards for teaching (2017) and research (2013, 2014, 2020, 2023).
Publications
Books
- Tejani, Riaz. Law and Economics: New Trajectories in Law. London and New York: Routledge, 2023. [Amazon]
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Tejani, Riaz. Law and Society Today. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2019. South Asia edition (India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan): Jaipur, India: Rawat Publishers, 2023. [Amazon]
- Tejani, Riaz. Law Mart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2017. [Amazon]
Chapters
- Tejani, Riaz. "A Shout in the Cathedral: Elizabeth Mertz' Groundbreaking Language of Law School." In Leading Works in Legal Anthropology. London and New York: Routledge, 2024.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Anthropology." In Research Handbook of New Legal Realism, edited by Shauhin Talesh, Elizabeth Mertz, and Heinz Klug. Edward Elgar Publishers, 2021.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Legal Education for Profit and the United Nations Call for 'Strong Institutions' in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda." In Crime Prevention and Justice in 2030: The UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, edited by Slawomir Redo and Helmut Kury. New York: Springer Publishing, 2020.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Market Creep: 'Product' Talk in Legal Education." In Power, Legal Education, and Law School Cultures, edited by Meera Deo, Mindie Lazarus-Black, and Elizabeth Mertz. New York: Routledge, 2020.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Distance in Law and Globalization: Armchair Anthropology Revisited." In Comparative Law and Anthropology, edited by James Nafziger. Edward Elgar Publishers, 2017.
- Tejani, Riaz. "'Fielding' Legal Realism: The Law Student as Participant Observer." In The New Legal Realism: Translating Law-and-Society for Today's Legal Practice, edited by Stewart Macaulay, Elizabeth Mertz, and Thomas Mitchell. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Articles and Working Papers
- Tejani, Riaz. "Calabresi's Invite: Law and Economics and the Problem of Situated Valuation." Law and Society Review. Forthcoming.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Moral Convergence: The Rules of Professional Responsibility Should Apply to Lawyers in Business Ethics." Chinese translation: Ethics and Norms of the Legal Profession, Shanghai People's Publishing House. Forthcoming.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Moral Convergence: The Rules of Professional Responsibility Should Apply to Lawyers in Business Ethics." Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 35 (2022): 33.
- Tejani, Riaz. "The Life of Transplants: Why Law-and-Economics Has 'Succeeded' Where Legal Anthropology Has Not." Alabama Law Review 73 (2022): 734.
- Tejani, Riaz. "'To See Society's Heart in Its Mind': Looking for Justice with Carol Greenhouse." Political and Legal Anthropology Review, online forum: Festschrift for Carol Greenhouse, July 2020. https://polarjournal.org/2020/07/06/to-see-societys-heart-in-its-mind-looking-for-justice-with-carol-greenhouse/
- Tejani, Riaz. "A Working Class Profession: Opportunism and Diversity in U.S. Law." Dialectical Anthropology 42 (2): 131–148, 2018.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Professional Apartheid: The Racialization of US Law Schools After Global Economic Crisis." American Ethnologist 44 (3), 2017.
- Tejani, Riaz. "Efficiency Unbound: Processual Deterrence in the New Legal Realism." UC Irvine Law Review 6 (2016): 207.
Selected Presentations
- Wenner-Gren Ethnography of Law Symposium and Conference, UC Irvine, spring 2025 (TBA)
- 20th Anniversary New Legal Realism Conference, Harvard Law School, Oct. 18–19, 2024
- "Method and Doubt: The Ethnography of Law and Economics." New Methodological Approaches Panel. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Denver, Colorado, June 7, 2024
- Discussant, Governance, Regulation, and the State Panel. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Denver, Colorado, June 7, 2024
- Author guest lecturer, "Law Mart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools." Legal Anthropology, Emory University School of Law. Atlanta, Georgia (remote), Aug. 22, 2023
- Discussant, Law and Anthropology Roundtable. Max Planck Institute. Halle, Germany (remote), July 10, 2023
- "Calabresi's Invite: Law and Economics and the Problem of Situated Valuation." American Bar Foundation. Chicago, Dec. 7, 2022
- "A Shout in the Cathedral: Elizabeth Mertz' Groundbreaking Language of Law School." Leading Works in Law & Anthropology Workshop. Max Planck Institute. Halle, Germany (remote), Jan. 17, 2022
- "Legal Anthropology." New Legal Realism. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Chicago/online, May 29, 2021
- Chair, "Legal Education After COVID-19: Realist Approaches." Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Chicago/online, May 28, 2021
- "Scientism in Law and Economics." Anthropologists Among Lawyers. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. Chicago/online, May 27, 2021
- "Leadership Success for International Students." Office of Campus Diversity and Inclusion, March 31, 2021
- "The Life of Transplants: 'Success' in Legal Anthropology and Law & Economics." Legal Anthropology Workshop. University of Alabama School of Law (online), Feb. 20, 2020
- "Mutual Moral Deferment: 'Law & Economics' Changes the Role of Law in Organizational Ethics." Webinar. Redlands Business Day. University of Redlands School of Business, Dec. 5, 2020
- "Mutual Moral Deferment: 'Law & Economics' Changes the Role of Law in Organizational Ethics." Webinar. Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, Sept. 23, 2020
Awards and Service
- Vice chair, School of Business Faculty Assembly, University of Redlands, 2024–present
- Chair, Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects, University of Redlands, 2022–present
- Excellence in Research Award, School of Business, University of Redlands, 2023
- Outstanding Faculty Research Award, University of Redlands, 2020
- Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Illinois Springfield, 2018
- Exceptional Merit Award, College of Public Affairs, University of Illinois Springfield, 2016
Affiliations
- Board member, New Legal Realism Advisory Board, 2022–present
- Co-director, Law and Society Association CRN 28, New Legal Realism, 2020–present
- Editorial board member, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2024–present
- Member, Institutional Biosafety Committee, WCG Clinical, 2024–present
- Member, State Bar of California — state and federal courts, 2011–present
- Board member, Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Workshop, 2021–present
- Public arbitrator, Financial Industries Regulatory Authority (FINRA), 2022–present
- Reviewer, National Science Foundation Global Centers Program, 2024–present