Mark D. West (born July 26, 1968) is an American legal scholar, social scientist, and academic serving as the Nippon Life Professor of Law at the University of Michigan since 2003The UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN – Regents Communication"Mark D. West, University of Michigan Law School" michigan.law.umich.edu. and the David A. Breach Dean of Law from 2013 to 2023.$5M Gift From David A. Breach and Family Endows Michigan Law Deanship, Funds Racial Justice Initiatives", michigan.law.umich.edu. He was the 17th dean of the University of Michigan Law School and is now the provost at Washington University in St. Louis.
Education and early career West earned a B.A. from Rhodes College in International Studies and a J.D. from Columbia University,"Mark D. West | U-M LSA International Institute". ii.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-13. where he studied with Walter Gellhorn. He clerked for Eugene Nickerson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and practiced transactional law in New York City and Tokyo with the multinational law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Between practice and academia, he was awarded an Abe Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law, where he studied with Hideki Kanda.Abe Fellowship Program, 1996 Abe Fellows. West was named assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School in 1998, and was appointed Nippon Life Professor of Law in 2003.The UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN – Regents Communication; Katie Vloet, "Mark West, expert on Japanese Law, named 17th dean of Law School," The University Record, January 14, 2013. He has presented, conducted research, and taught at several Japanese institutions, most frequently at Kyoto University (2000, 2001–2002, 2003, 2005), where he was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Visiting Scholar and a Fulbright Research Scholar.
Early administrative service In 1998, West founded the University of Michigan Law School's Japanese Legal Studies Program."Japanese Law Program Thrives", 42(2) Law Quad Notes (1999). From 2003 to 2008, West served simultaneously as Director of the University of Michigan Law School's Center for International and Corporate Law and the University of Michigan's multidisciplinary Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), the oldest such center in the country."Nippon Life Professor Mark D. West Named to Two Directorships", 46(2) Law Quad Notes (Summer 2003). His five-year term as CJS's 16th director is the longest consecutive term of service since the center's founding in 1947.CJS Directors, 1947–Present, ii.umich.edu. From 2008 to 2013, he served as Michigan Law's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.The UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN- Regents Communication
Deanship West was appointed Dean of the Law School effective September 1, 2013.Vloet, Katie. "Mark West, Expert on Japanese Law, Named 17th Dean of Law School," The University Record, January 14, 2013. Among his achievements as dean, he significantly expanded and diversified the faculty, including the hiring of a record 21 new faculty members in 2022."Michigan Law Hires New Faculty Members," Michigan.law.umich.edu, July 20, 2022. Working with students, employers, and alumni, he established a summer funding guarantee for all first-year students that was the most expansive in the country at the time of its creation. He created and launched several new initiatives, including the Law and Mobility Program; the Master of Advanced Corporation Law degree; the Veterans’ Clinic; the Workers’ Rights Clinic; and the Problem Solving Initiative, an interdisciplinary, university-wide platform for developing solutions to difficult challenges facing business and society. West led the school's successful fundraising efforts in the Victors for Michigan campaign, with donors giving over $200 million to the school. He led a significant expansion of the school's diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, including the creation of an alumni-majority advisory board on Race and Racism, the establishment of a named deanship devoted to racial justice issues, the launching of the school's first diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic plan, and the addition of faculty whose research examines race-related legal issues and teach race-related courses.
In 2022, joining several other law schools, West announced the decision that "it no longer makes sense for Michigan Law to participate in the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings process.""Michigan Law Will Not Participate in U.S. News Rankings," Michigan.law.umich.edu, November 20, 2022.
Research West's research is broadly multidisciplinary and focuses on Japanese law and the Japanese legal system.
West's early work focused on corporate governance and law and economics. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, his research examined the role of law and norms in such areas as the shareholder derivative suit,West, Mark D. "The Pricing of Shareholder Derivatives Actions in Japan and the United States," 88 Northwestern University Law Review 1436 (1993–1994). the Japan Sumo Association,West, Mark D. "Legal Rules and Social Norms in Japan’s Secret World of Sumo," 26(1) Journal of Legal Studies 165 (January 1997). and Sokaiya corporate racketeers.West, Mark D. "Information, Institutions, and Extortion in Japan and the United States: Making Sense of Sokaiya Racketeers," 93(3) Northwestern University Law Review 767 (Spring 1999). This work helped form a basis for his first book, Economic Organizations and Corporate Governance in Japan: The Impact of Formal and Informal Rules (with Curtis J. Milhaupt), which Anderson say "marks a new era in the field of comparative Japanese law and cements the two authors as the doyens of this ‘Next Generation’."Anderson, Kent. "Mixed Reception: Culture, International Norms, and Legal Changes in East Asia," 27 Michigan Journal of International Law 985 (Spring 2006).
West then turned his scholarly attention to the role of law in the everyday lives of Japanese citizens. His book Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes was widely and positively reviewed across multiple disciplines. The Harvard Law Review calls it "colorful and methodologically unique,""Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes," 119(2) Harvard Law Review 702 (December 2005). while legal scholar Haley calls it "insightful."Haley, John O. "Book Review: Mark D. West, Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes," 54 American Journal of Comparative Law 891 (Fall 2006). Among anthropologists, Ryang calls it "invigorating;"Ryang, Sonja. "Book Review, Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes," 12(4) Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (Dec. 2006). Magnarella labels it "extreme well researched" and "highly recommended,"Magnarella, Paul J."Book Review, Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes," 102(1) Anthropos 304 (2007). and Brumann says "this is without a doubt a creative, informative, and conscientiously argued book from which anthropologists and other students of Japan will have much to learn."Brumann, Christoph. "Structure and Identity in the Study of Japan," 48(5) Current Anthropology 767 (2007). Among historians, Kingston called it "superb" and "delightfully engaging,"Kingston, Jeff. "Japan’s social norms shaped by Law," Japan Times, March 5, 2006. and Allison described it as "skillful, astute, and fascinating."Allison, Gary D. "Book Review, Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes," 69(1) The Historian 140 (2006). Relying on what political scientist Le Blanc calls "eclectic" methods, West "’loses’ cell phones, interviews love-hotel employees, talks with survivors of failed suicide attempts, examines records in police and local government archives, and, when data permits, even conducts simple quantitative analyses," creating a "marvelously sane reminder of the value of being painstaking and rigorous and the silliness of hewing too closely to any methodological or theoretical dogma."Blanc, Robin M. "Book Review, Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes," 61:2 Monumenta Nipponica 278 (Summer 2006). One chapter of the book, based largely on a Law and Society Review article in which West analyzes the laws and norms regarding returning lost property in Japan,West, Mark D. "Losers: Recovering Lost Property in Japan and the United States", 37(2) Law & Society Review 369 (June 2003). continues to receive significant attention many years later in the popular press, including Bloomberg,Richarz, Allan. "Japan’s Lost-and-Found System Is Insanely Good," Bloomberg, February 10, 2020. the BBC,Park, William, and Airth, Johanna. "Why Japan is so successful at returning lost property," BBC, January 15, 2020. the Los Angeles Times,Coulton, Tom Miyagawa and Glionna, John M. "Japanese return cash recovered after tsunami," Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2011. the Wall Street Journal,Walter, David. "Great Moments in Walletology," Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2013. and Slate.Beam Christopher. "Stop, Thief! Thank you.," Slate, March 16, 2011
Following the success of Law in Everyday Japan, West turned his attention to the comparative study of scandal, which was also broadly read across disciplines. Among legal scholars, Upham calls Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States "deliciously entertaining" and says that West is "encyclopedic in his knowledge of popular culture in both countries,"Upham, Frank K. "Book Review: Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States", 34(2) Journal of Japanese Studies 539 (2008). while Lee calls the book a "must-read for comparativists and all students and scholars of contemporary East Asian law and society,"Lee, Ilhyung. "Book Review, Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States", 67(4) Journal of Asian Studies 1471 (2008). and Liebman says "we should delight in the details of scandal and seediness. It would be hard for readers of this book to do anything else."Liebman, Benjamin L. "Scandal, Sukyandaru, and Chouwen," 106(6) Michigan Law Review (2008). Sociologist Adut writes that the book "stands out by its lively style, lucidity, and erudition."Adut, Ari. "Book Review, Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States", 41(4) Law & Society Review 992 (December 2007).