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 Richard C.E. Beck
Professor of Law
Codirector, Graduate Tax Program
A former Sanskrit professor at Brown University, Richard C.E. Beck finds that the tax code he now teaches, with its multitudinous rules and layers of exceptions, has parallels in his study of linguistics.
"Puzzle-solving enthusiasts gravitate to tax law because of the enormous number of rules, intersections, and choices, and because it's extremely complicated," Professor Beck says. "It is certainly the most intricate law we have."
An expert in federal individual income tax who has testified before the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways & Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee on spousal liability income taxes, Professor Beck teaches Individual Tax, Tax Policy, and International Tax. He has also taught Corporate & Partnership Tax.
While an assistant professor at the University of Denver College of Law, he taught in an LL.M. program in tax and he is now codirector of a similar program at New York Law School.
He says tax law involves all areas of life, personal and business, and has an impact on many areas of law, from divorce and personal injury to bankruptcy and corporate law. It represents the "most continuous and important relationship we have with our government."
"I'm very pro-taxpayer for an academic," he says. "I look at the way law and administration work. It's often unfair to an individual who doesn't have the same resources as big organizations. I like to criticize bad case law and what I see as misguided decisions. I see myself, in part, as sort of a gadfly."
Corporate tax law is another area where Professor Beck finds room for improvement, and he coauthored a casebook on taxation of business enterprises.
He recently became interested in international tax law, which he says is even more complicated because it adds yet another two layers, with more than 50 bilateral treaties on top of the domestic federal international tax laws. He started an international tax law course that he would like to enmesh with the research going on at the Law School's Center for International Law.
Professor Beck grew up in Chicago and earned a B.A. and Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Chicago, where he also taught for a year. He then taught Indo-European linguistics and Sanskrit at Brown for seven years before turning to law.
After practicing in New York City for five years, Professor Beck wrote a paper that reignited his academic interests, and he went back to teaching. He also teaches in Paris at the Sorbonne, and he is planning to write a book on comparative international tax law together with a French and a German professor.
He loves New York City and lives in the Village with his wife.
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Contact information:
T: 212-431-2307
F: 212-343-2039
E: rbeck@nyls.edu
O: C206
Assistant: Katrice Ayarza
T: 212-431-2305
E: kayarza@nyls.edu
O: B209
Education:
University of Chicago, B.A. 1963, Ph.D. 1973
Yale, J.D. 1980
New York University, LL.M. (Taxation) 1984
Fulbright Fellowships, University of Paris 1965-66, University of Calcutta Sanskrit College 1967-68.
Courses:
Federal Income Tax: Tax
Policy
Federal Income Tax:
Corporate
Federal Income Tax:
Individual
International Taxation
At New York Law School since 1987.
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