Constitutional Studies subfield

Political life is more than one-dimensional; it blends the private and the public, the self- and other-serving. From the way political actors actually behave and account for themselves, they see their private interests as aspects of the public interest. Should a particular political position seem to serve nothing but the private interest of its exponents, public policy based on that position is called unreasonable or arbitrary. Political usage thus associates reason and rationality not with self-serving efficiency, but with the intelligent and public-spirited pursuit of the common defense, the general welfare, and other public purposes. A science of how real people actually behave politically – how they act and talk in politically relevant ways – would therefore be committed to the integration of “normative” and “empirical” approaches to political knowledge. Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame strives to be such a discipline.

Pursuant to this aspiration, our field rejects the fact-value dichotomy that remains popular in some academic circles despite its long decline in modern philosophy. Our field conceives constitutional democracy as seeking not merely to aggregate popular preferences but also to refine and enlarge popular preferences toward reasonable conceptions of the common good. Our field assumes a conception of political leadership shared by political thinkers from Aristotle to the authors of The Federalist and beyond: leadership that educates the public to its true interest, as opposed to its temporary inclinations. A substantial part of our program is thus devoted to the different conceptions of the public interest that have been debated from the American Founding to the present.

This debate makes up a large part of the literature of constitutional thought and law. This literature also includes debates about the right approach to constitutional interpretation, the correct models of constitutional institutions, and the meaning and scope of constitutional powers and rights. Following the example of the American Founders, students of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame will examine the experiences of other nations in an attempt to find what institutional arrangements work under what  circumstances and might work at home for the benefit of the nation’s people. And from their concern for the material conditions for constitutional success, our students will study judicial behavior and how constitutional institutions interact with each other and with public opinion.

Courses in such topics and student research projects carefully supervised by distinguished senior scholars and conducted in an atmosphere of public-spirited inquiry seek to produce scholars who succeed professionally by addressing important constitutional questions in a manner that is innovative, intellectually rigorous, and socially responsible.