Before he joined the Allard School of Law in 1970, Steve Wexler was staff counsel at the National Welfare Rights Organization in Washington, D.C. His major academic interest is legal philosophy, particularly the work of Aristotle. Professor Wexler's own philosophical work is extremely eclectic. He has written about practicing law for poor people, the relationship of law and morals, the extent to which law is a rational activity and the centrality of burden of proof to legal thought. He is a textual radicalist and each year he reads a different classic text out loud with students; among them have been Maitland's Forms of Action, Maine's Ancient Law, Carson's Economy of the Unlost and Tussman's Burden of Office. In 2005, he and his students will read De Tocqueville's Democracy in America. Five years ago, Professor Wexler began a weekly Aristotle reading group made up of faculty and students from many departments at UBC and Simon Fraser University. This group has read: Rhetoric, Politics, Ethics, Poetics and De Anima. This year they will read Parva Naturalia (on sleep, dreams, memory, etc.) and Metaphysics. The reading is out loud in English, but some members of the group read Greek and the Greek text is discussed.
In addition to legal philosophy, Professor Wexler is interested in Tort law.
He is a graduate of the Professional Baseball Umpire's School and a photographer whose work has been widely published and displayed.