The Cycles of Constitutional Time

Thursday, February 25th 2021
12:45 – 5:30pm

Boston University Law Review is honored to host a symposium on Yale Law Professor Jack M. Balkin’s fascinating new book, The Cycles of Constitutional Time. The opening panel, to be held from 12:45 to 2:00, will feature Professor Balkin’s remarks along with commentary by Harvard Political Science Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of the well-known book, How Democracies Die. Professor Balkin will respond, followed by questions from the registrants.

After the opening panel, the symposium will continue with papers by several additional prominent scholars. See the schedule below.

Register here.

Zoom Webinar Link

Balkin’s The Cycles of Constitutional Time (Oxford University Press, 2020), explains how America’s constitutional system changes through the interplay among three cycles: the rise and fall of dominant political parties, the waxing and waning of political polarization, and alternating episodes of constitutional decay and constitutional renewal.   These cycles affect the work of the federal courts and theories about constitutional interpretation. The book shows how the political parties have switched sides on judicial review not once but twice in the 20th century, and what struggles over judicial review will look like in the coming decades. Cycles argues that the big threat to American democracy today is  “constitutional rot” — the historical process through which republics become less representative and less devoted to the common good. Brought on by increasing economic inequality and loss of trust, constitutional rot threatens our constitutional system.  But the book offers a message of hope: American democracy has weathered these cycles before and will get through them again.

Symposium Schedule

12:45-2:00: Jack Balkin and Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, Keynote Panel
2:00-2:20: Break
2:20-3:20: Gary Lawson and Laura Weinrib
3:20-3:40: Break
3:40-5:00: Richard Albert, James Fleming & Linda McClain, and Robert Tsai
5:00-5:30: Virtual Reception

Participant List

Richard Albert, William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School
Franciska Coleman, University of Wisconsin Law School
James Fleming, The Honorable Paul J. Liacos Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Gary Lawson, Philip S. Beck Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies, Department of Government, Harvard University
Linda McClain, Robert Kent Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Robert Tsai, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Laura Weinrib, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Daniel Ziblatt, Easton Professor of the Science of Government, Harvard University

This event will be presented as a Zoom Webinar.

For questions about physical accessibility or to request a communication-related accommodation ( e.g. ASL Interpreters, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART); assistive listening devices; hearing or induction loops), please contact (lawevent@bu.edu). Please submit requests for accommodations as soon as possible, ideally no later than 10 business days prior to the event.

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