Frank Michelman

Frank Isaac Michelman (born May 26, 1936) is an American legal scholar and the Robert Walmsley University Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School.

In 1960, Michelman was graduated from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Justice William Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1961 Term. In 1962, he joined the Harvard Law School faculty.

Michelman wrote the influential law review article, Property, Utility and Fairness, (80 Harv. L. Rev. 1165 (1967)) on the economic reasons for just compensation in the 5th Amendment Takings Clause in the United States Constitution. This article was cited by the majority in its opinion in Penn Central v. New York City, the Supreme Court case that dealt with the authority of a local New York City landmark law that forbade the railroad company from putting up a skyscraper above the historic Grand Central Terminal structure. Michelman's analysis relied on evaluating whether the nuisance costs and value to society were worth it. He observed that while the Courts did not always provide rulings which were fair or provided utility, they provided as perfect a results that can be obtained by the Courts. He observed that administrative agencies and legislatures were shirking their roles in the compensation process.

Michelman served as Vice-President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy 1994-96 and as its President, 1998-2001.

Michelman was the first recipient of the College of William and Mary's Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize in 2004. The Prize is awarded annually to an individual whose work contributes to furthering the cause of private property rights. He was selected for the award largely due to his article, "Property, Utility, and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical Foundations of ‘Just Compensation’ Law", 80 Har.L. Rev. 1165 (1967).

In 2005 he won the American Philosophical Society Award. At a November ceremony in Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society awarded Professor Frank Michelman its Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence. The prize was given only 20 times in more than a century, and honored Michelman's significant contributions to the field of jurisprudence

In November 2007, Frank Michelman was a Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany.

He retired from the University Professorship in 2012, and in February 2013 Cass Sunstein was appointed by Harvard University's President, Drew Gilpin Faust, to succeed him.