Christopher M. Fairman (July 26, 1960 – July 22, 2015) was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of law at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

Moritz College of Law The Michael E. Moritz College of Law is the law school of Ohio State University, a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1891, the school is located in Drinko Hall on the main campus of the Ohio State University in C ...

and Associate Dean for Faculty. He was also the C. William O'Neill Professor in Law and Judicial Administration. Fairman was born in

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. He was awarded the "Outstanding Professor Award 2003" by the Graduating Class of 2003. Fairman's article "Fuck", published in 2007 by

Cardozo Law Review The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University in New York City. Founded in 1976 and now located on Fifth Avenue near Union Square in Lower Manhattan, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardo ...

, examines the legal implications of the use of the word ''

fuck ''Fuck'' () is profanity in the English language that often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested ...

''. Fairman's article quickly became one of the most downloaded scholarly legal articles on the Internet, leading to some controversy in

Brian Leiter Brian Leiter (; born 1963) is an American philosopher and legal scholar who is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and founder and Director of Chicago's Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values ...

's list of "Most Downloaded Law Faculties, 2006" because Brian Leiter chose to omit Ohio State and

Emory University School of Law Emory University School of Law is the law school of Emory University, a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1916 and was the first law school in Georgia to be granted membership in the American Association of Law ...

(where Fairman was a visiting professor) from the list. Leiter argued that without Fairman's article, neither school would be close to the top 15. In 2009 Fairman followed up this article with the book '' Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties'', published by

Sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...

. Fairman's primary areas of focus were civil procedure and heightened pleading.Christopher M. Fairman at Moritz College of Law
. Accessed 2015-07-24. He died of cardiac arrest at the age of 54 on July 22, 2015. At the time of his death, Fairman's 2007 ''Cardozo Law Review'' article, "Fuck" was still classed with the 20 top downloaded works on the Social Science Research Network.

Selected publications

*"Heightened Pleading," 81 Tex. L. Rev. 551 (2002) *"Ethics and Collaborative Lawyering: Why Put Old Hats on New Heads?," 18 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 505 (2003) *"No McJustice for the Fat Kids," Legal Times, Feb. 17, 2003, at 42 *"The Myth of Notice Pleading," 45 Ariz. L. Rev. 987 (2003) *"An Invitation to the Rulemakers – Strike Rule 9(b)," 38 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 281 (2004) *"House Follies," Legal Times, June 13, 2005, at 76 *"A Proposed Model Rule for Collaborative Law," 21 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 73 (2005). *"Fuck," 28 Cardozo L. Rev. 1711 (2007). *"Why We Still Need a Model Rule for Collaborative Law: A Reply to Professor Lande," 22 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 707 (2007). * ; Kindle edition:

References

1960 births 2015 deaths American legal scholars Ohio State University faculty Moritz College of Law faculty {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub