The Founders and Their Constitution
This institute will study the Founders and their view of the Constitution, with the assistance of a group of leading historians, philosophers and lawyers. The Constitution is sometimes said to be an Enlightenment document. We’ll ask whether that is so, and if so just what that might mean. We’ll also examine specific legal questions, with the view to understanding how the Founders understood them.
- Historical Background
- Gordon S. Wood, Brown University, History
- Religion and the Founders
- Jeremy Waldron, NYU Law School
- Blackstone
- James R. Stoner, Louisiana State University,
- Political Science
- Separation of Powers
- Thomas L. Pangle, The University of Texas, Government
- Foreign Affairs and the War Power
- Philip C. Bobbitt Columbia Law School
- Economic Liberties
and Federalism
- Eric R. Claeys, George Mason School of Law
- The Bill of Rights:
The First Amendment
- Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School
Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor at Brown University and the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution. His The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 won a Bancroft Prize. Jeremy Waldron is one of the leading political philosophers and the author of God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations of Locke’s Political Thought. James R. Stoner is the Chair of the Department of Government at Louisiana State University. Thomas L. Pangle holds the Joe R. Long Chair in Democratic Studies in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of The Spirit of Modern Republicanism: The Moral Vision of the American Founders. Philip C. Bobbitt is one of the nation’s leading constitutional theorists. He has published six books, including The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History and Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century. Eric R. Claeys is Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason School of Law. Eugene Volokh has written over 45 law review articles and runs the Volokh Conspiracy Web log, http://volokh.com.