Monroe Edwin Price, a distinguished American academic and a towering figure in the fields of legal and communication studies, passed away on March 16, 2026, at the age of 87 in New York, New York. His profound scholarship and institutional leadership left an indelible mark on media law, Native American law, and global communication policy. Price's career spanned over five decades, characterized by an unwavering commitment to freedom of expression and the critical examination of media's role in society.

Born in Vienna, Austria, on August 18, 1938, Price's early life was profoundly shaped by the tumultuous events leading up to World War II. His middle-class Jewish family escaped the Anschluss annexation of Austria in 1939, following his father's arrest during Kristallnacht, resettling in New York City before moving to Macon, Georgia, and later Cincinnati, Ohio, where he grew up alongside his younger sister, Vivian. He pursued his higher education at Yale University, where he was an enterprising reporter for the Yale Daily News, even interviewing Fidel Castro. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960 and a Juris Doctor in 1964, having split his law school studies between the University of Virginia and Yale.

Following his graduation from Yale Law School, Price embarked on a distinguished legal career, serving as a law clerk for Associate Justice Potter Stewart of the United States Supreme Court from 1964 to 1965. He also held positions as an assistant to Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz from 1965 to 1966 and as a researcher for the Warren Commission, demonstrating an early dedication to public service and legal inquiry. In his legal career, he served as counsel for Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles and was the court-appointed referee in *Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education*, the Los Angeles school desegregation case, from 1976 to 1978.

Price's pioneering work in American Indian law in the 1970s established him as a significant voice for indigenous rights. He authored the foundational text "Law and the American Indian" (1973) and was instrumental in the establishment of California Indian Legal Services and the Native American Rights Fund. He also represented Cook Inlet Region, Inc., a Native Corporation established under the Alaska Native Claims Act. His efforts during this period coincided with his tenure as a professor at the UCLA School of Law, where he also established a Communications Law Program in 1972, further solidifying his commitment to understanding and shaping media policy.

His expertise extended to the burgeoning field of communication law. In the early 1970s, he served as deputy director of the Sloan Commission on Cable Communications, which produced the influential report "On the Cable, The Television of Abundance" (1971). From 1982 to 1991, Price served as the esteemed Dean of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City, where he held the title of Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law. During his deanship, he fostered a period of significant growth and innovation, creating the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society.

Price's influence was truly global. He was the founding director of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the University of Oxford, an initiative he co-founded in 1996 that led to the creation of the annual Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition in 2008. He also established the Center for Media, Data and Society at Central European University and directed the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research in London. In 2006, he founded the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a retired Adjunct Full Professor. He also established and edited the "Post-Soviet Media Law and Policy Newsletter," which led to the book "Russian Media Law and Policy in the Yeltsin Decade."

Throughout his career, Price was a prolific author, publishing extensively on communication, media law, and copyright. His seminal works include "Law and the American Indian," "Television, the Public Sphere, and National Identity," "Media and Sovereignty," "Free Expression, Globalism, and the New Strategic Communication," and "Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China" (2008, edited with Daniel Dayan). In 2007, he published his memoir, "Objects of Remembrance: A Memoir of American Opportunities and Viennese Dreams," which chronicles his experience of becoming an American as a child of refugees. He retired from active teaching and advising in 2020.

Monroe Edwin Price married art historian Aimée Brown Price, and together they had three children, Josh, Gabe, and Asher. He was also a beloved brother to Vivian. An avid art collector and arts advocate, his intellectual curiosity, warmth, and boundless enthusiasm inspired generations of students and colleagues. Personal tributes describe him as a "wonderful mosaic of brilliance, curiosity, messiness, impatience, humor, improvised strategy, and (sometimes strategic) improvisation; staunchly, decisively, and rebelliously human," who had a profound impact on individuals' lives and careers. He will be remembered not only for his profound scholarly contributions and institutional leadership but also for his generosity as a mentor and his unwavering belief in the power of ideas to shape a better world.