Professor Butler Shaffer says government is an unnecessary evil.
From the view of a “modern social historian and philosopher,” Professor Shaffer has written numerous books and articles on social theory, business and labor law, and has spoken on these topics before a variety of academic and special interest forums. In his book, Calculated chaos: Institutional threats to peace and human survival, he explores the theory that “institutions are the principle means by which conflict is produced and managed in society.” He considers how leaders of industry influenced the creation of the New Deal’s National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 in his book, In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition: 1918-1938. Professor Shaffer has also been interviewed on these subjects on network television, cable and radio.
Following graduation from law school, Professor Shaffer was a labor relations consultant to the Midwest Employees Council in Lincoln, Nebraska, and went on to establish a private law practice in Omaha. He subsequently joined the firm of Nelson, Harding, Marchetti, Leonard & Tate, and then began a career in academia at the University of Nebraska College of Business Administration where he taught courses in business and law. Professor Shaffer has been a member of the Southwestern faculty since 1977. In 2002, he was named as the Irwin R. Buchalter Professor of Law in recognition of his outstanding contributions to legal education and scholarship.