๐ Professor of World Constitutions @UTAustin ๐ Advisor to Governments and Parliaments ๐ Former President of @ICON__S ๐ Alum @Yale @Harvard @UniofOxford
Joined April 2009
- Tweets2.7K
- Following155
- Followers25.9K
- Likes4.8K
๐ Editing my paper "Is an Unamendable Constitution Undemocratic?," coming soon in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, with thanks to its outstanding editorial leadership.
๐ In the paper, I make the case that unamendability is not a technology worth encoding in any constitution. I draw from the results of a first-of-its-kind global survey of constitutional experts to show that there are costs to legality and legitimacy when incumbents exploit the mechanisms of law to overcome an unamendable constitution.
๐ My principal purpose is to steer constitution-makers away from designing constitutions that induce incumbents to follow the path of illegality when they feel handcuffed to an unamendable constitution. I offer detailed recommendations for designing constitutions to be always amendable while simultaneously: (1) protecting the core of the constitution and its highest values; (2) achieving the expressive benefits of unamendability; and (3) respecting the rule of law.
๐ฐ Read an earlier draft here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.โฆ
๐ฉ๐ฝโ๐๐ง๐ฟโ๐๐จโ๐ The Top 10 Universities for the quality of student life.
๐ #1 is the University of Texas at Austin @UTAustin. Each is a great place to be a student.
๐ All details here: niche.com/colleges/search/beโฆ
๐ In his new book provocatively titled "Secession," Kent Greenfield @Kentgreenfield1 does what few constitutional scholars have dared: to make a serious, carefully reasoned case for breaking up the United States. And he does so with rigor, courage, and a constitutional lawyerโs eye for detail.
๐ซ My own view: I do not agree that secession is the remedy for what ails the United States. I believe the Union should endure forever and all time. BUT this new book has jumped to the top of my shortlist for book of the year.
๐ Greenfield's diagnosis of the constitutional dysfunction in America is bracing, his blueprint for peaceful separation is meticulous, and his challenge to complacency is one every citizen should confront for themselves. Even skeptics like me will finish this brilliant book wiser than we began.
๐ Learn more about this important book here -- and get your copy soon: harpercollins.com/products/sโฆ
๐คฉ Class today in my course on Constitutional Amendments in the U.S. and the World here at the University of Texas at Austin.
๐ Our guest is Catarina Santos Botelho @CSantosBotelho, Chair of Constitutional Law at the Universidade Catรณlica Portuguesa @catolicaporto.
๐ Our topic is a fascinating puzzle: how (and whether) to amend unamendable rules.
๐ Some key readings include:
1. Catarina Santos Botelho, "Constitutional Narcissism on the Couch of Psychoanalysis: Constitutional Unamendability in Portugal and Spain," 21 European Journal of Law Reform 346 (2019)
2. Jรณnatas E.M. Machado, "The Portuguese Constitution of 1976: Half-Life and Decay," in Engineering Constitutional Change (Xenophon Contiades ed., 2012)
3. Peter Suber, The Paradox of Self-Amendment: A Study of Logic, Law, Omnipotence, and Change (1990)
๐ All are welcome to the best and biggest annual conference in public law!
๐ The International Society of Public Law @ICON__S has released the Call for Papers and Panels for the highly-anticipated 2027 gathering in Taiwan, to be hosted by Academia Sinica @AcadSinica on June 30 to July 2.
๐ All details are here: icon-society.org/call-for-suโฆ
๐ Join us!
๐คฉ Class today in my course on "Constitutional Amendments in the U.S. and the World" here at the University of Texas at Austin.
๐ Our topic is unamendability.
๐ Some key readings include:
1. Silvia Suteu, Eternity Clauses in Democratic Constitutionalism (2021)
2. Yaniv Roznai, Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments (2017)
๐ The 9th Annual Constitutional Law Scholars Forum is now accepting submissions. Hosted and organized by Professor Eang Ly Ngov, the conference will be held at Barry University on February 19, 2027.
๐ Details and registration here: sites.google.com/view/constiโฆ
๐คฉ Great to see my classmate Larry Obhof @LarryObhof, more than two decades after our graduation from the Yale Law School @YaleLawSch.
๐๐ฝ As students, we would go to the gym early in the morning. He would leg press 1050 pounds for 3 sets of 10. Then we would go to the dining hall for the brunch buffet, and spend the next two hours trying to out-eat each other and talking about college football, professional wrestling, and the 2004 presidential election.
โ๏ธ He then represented his hometown Medina in the Ohio Legislature and later became President of the Senate.
๐๐ฝ He is most proud of marrying his high school sweetheart Nicole and raising their amazing daughters.
