Professor Hyland is one of the country’s leading scholars in the fields of commercial and comparative law. He has published widely in these fields as well as in the field of legal theory. 

In May 2009, Oxford University Press published Gifts: A Study in Comparative Law, Professor Hyland’s wide-ranging comparative investigation of the law governing the giving of gifts. Gifts was chosen as one of the eight law books of the year by the German legal periodical NJW. 

Professor Hyland has contributed to the revisions to the Sales Article of the Uniform Commercial Code, served as reporter for provisions in UNIDROIT’s Principles of International Commercial Contracts, and drafted an opinion for the Advisory Council on the Vienna Sales Convention. Professor Hyland has taught as a visiting professor at universities in Barcelona, Berlin, Freiburg, Graz, Hanoi, Kyoto, Lisbon, and Paris, and as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Tokyo and Beijing. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, the American Law Institute, the International Academy of Comparative Law, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

At Rutgers, Professor Hyland was chosen by the student body as Teacher of the Year in 1994. He has received both the Camden Provost’s Teaching Excellence Award and the Award of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation for a Lifetime of Distinguished Teaching.  

Professor Hyland attended Harvard College and the Boalt Hall Law School. He also holds a DEA (Diplôme d’études approfondies) in French private law from the University of Paris 2 and an MFA in fiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts.

Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Professor Hyland worked at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington DC and taught at the University of Miami Law School.