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Constitutionalism and Political Science: Imaginative Scholarship, Unimaginative Teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2005

Mark A. Graber
Mark A. Graber
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland School of Law (mgraber@gvpt.umd.edu)
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Extract

In 1983 Martin Shapiro worried that the “new jurisprudence of values” being promoted by the new generation of public law scholars in political science would “serve as a cover for slipping back into playing ‘little law professor’ for undergraduates.” Proponents of the “jurisprudence of values” in political science, who engaged in constitutional theorizing about individual rights and the structure of governing institutions, would “writ[e] conventional case law doctrine” that “contain[ed] no distinctive political analysis.” Worse, the fruits of the behavioral revolution might rot should normative concerns take center stage in public law inquiry. Rather than further integrate the study of courts into mainstream political science, public law scholars would spend their time telling Supreme Court justices how to do their jobs. Shapiro predicted, “[P]olitical scientists trained in the empirically oriented ‘American politics’ field will be shoved to the edges of ‘public law,’ and political jurisprudence will be converted to ‘legal and political theory.’” Abandoning American constitutionalism was the best antidote for the threat a jurisprudence of values presented to the social science study of law and courts. Students of the judicial process, Shapiro declared in 1989, should explore “any public law other than constitutional law, any court other than the Supreme Court, any public lawmaker other than the judge, and any country other than the United States.”Mark A. Graber is a professor of government at the University of Maryland, College Park and a professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law (mgraber@gvpt.umd.edu). He is the author of Transforming Free Speech, Rethinking Abortion, and Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil. The author thanks Rogers Smith, Howard Gillman, Keith Whittington, Ran Hirschl, Jennifer Hochschild and several (not-so) anonymous reviewers from their advice and encouragement. Apologies to the numerous talented young students of public law whose fine works were omitted to conserve space.

Type
REVIEW ESSAY
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 135 - 148
Copyright
© 2005 American Political Science Association

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