Professor James E. Fleming is Incoming President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy
The noted scholar of constitutional law and legal and political philosophy will serve as the Society’s president for a three-year term.
Honorable Paul J. Liacos Professor of Law James E. Fleming has been nominated by the Council of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy to be the next president of the Society. His three-year term will begin in January 2016. A scholar of constitutional law and legal and political philosophy, Fleming currently serves as vice president of the Society. He was editor of the Society’s annual book, NOMOS, from 2008 to 2012.
The American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy is a learned society that was founded 1955 by professor and political theorist Carl Friedrich to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration among political scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars. The group is led by a president and two vice presidents, ensuring that each of the three disciplines that comprise the group are represented. Each officer serves for three years. Previous leaders of the Society include preeminent scholars of political and legal philosophy, including John Rawls, Lon Fuller, and Frank Michelman. David Lyons, BU Law Alumni Scholar and professor of law and philosophy, has also served as vice president of the Society.
Professor Fleming writes in constitutional law and theory and teaches courses in constitutional law, constitutional theory, torts, and remedies. He is the author or co-author of five books, including Ordered Liberty: Rights, Responsibilities, and Virtues with BU Law Professor Linda McClain (Harvard University Press 2013).
His most recent book is Fidelity to Our Imperfect Constitution: For Moral Readings and Against Originalisms, forthcoming this summer from Oxford University Press. The book puts forth a sustained critique of all forms of originalism—“whether old or new, concrete or abstract, living or dead.” Instead, he defends what constitutional theorist Ronald Dworkin called a “moral reading” of the United States Constitution, or a “philosophic approach” to constitutional interpretation: conceptions of the Constitution as embodying abstract moral and political principles—not codifying concrete historical rules or practices.
Since joining Boston University School of Law in 2007, Professor Fleming has organized a number of major conferences and symposia. He serves as faculty advisor to Boston University Law Review and is associate dean for Research and Intellectual Life.
“I am excited by this wonderful opportunity,” Fleming says. “The American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy is perhaps the most prominent learned society fostering an interdisciplinary approach to the study of law. It encourages scholars and students to conceive law not merely as a code of rules but more fundamentally as an embodiment of underlying normative principles and commitments.
“I am especially happy to undertake this new responsibility just as I introduce a new course at BU called Jurisprudence: Contemporary Controversies over Law and Morality, in which we will explore classic problems of jurisprudence as they arise in ‘culture war’ battles over the legal enforcement of morals. I encourage students to take advantage of the rich interdisciplinary course offerings at BU Law.”
