July 18, 2008
Professor Gary Lawson receives David Saul Smith Award
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Professor Gary Lawson was honored this year with the David Saul Smith Award, a scholarship prize for his research. The award recipient is chosen by a panel consisting of BU Law's associate dean for research, designees from the chair of political science and the dean of CAS. Decisions are based on an evaluation of applications submitted by the law faculty.
“The project that I submitted is two related books on the federal Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause. One book, to be co-authored with Geoff Miller (NYU Law), Rob Natelson (University of Montana Law) and Guy Seidman (Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel), explores the hitherto overlooked origins of the clause in pre-eighteenth century private law, public law and corporate law,” said Lawson.
“Conventional wisdom treats the clause's origins as something of a mystery, because traditional sources from the Constitution's drafting and ratification do not discuss it. We look beyond those sources to find a wealth of material that accounts for the clause's language, placement and role in the constitutional structure,” continued Lawson. “The second book presents my own substantive interpretation of the clause's original meaning as a tool for enforcing the Constitution's general scheme of separated and enumerated powers.”
Lawson has been teaching at BU Law since 2000, after he taught at Northwestern University School of Law for almost 12 years. At BU Law, he is the associate dean for research faculty, and he teaches courses in administrative law, advanced administrative law and property law.
Some of his other publications include The Constitution of Empire: Territorial Expansion and American Legal History (Yale University Press), co-authored with Guy Seidman, and "Discretion as Delegation: The 'Proper' Understanding of the Nondelegation Doctrine" (George Washington Law Review).