James E. Fleming

Areas of Specialization: Constitutional Law; Constitutional Theory; Constitutional Interpretation; Political Philosophy; Law and Philosophy; Theories of Democracy; Torts; Remedies

Professor Fleming received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University after earning his A.B. from University of Missouri. He practiced litigation at Cravath, Swaine & Moore for five years in New York City before becoming a law professor. During the 1999-2000 year, he was a Faculty Fellow in Ethics in the Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Professions (now the Safra Center for Ethics). During the 2016-2017 year, he was a Visiting Research Scholar in the Princeton University Program in Law and Public Affairs.

Since coming to Boston University School of Law in 2007, Professor Fleming has organized conferences entitled The Most Disparaged Branch: The Role of Congress in the 21st Century, Justice for Hedgehogs: A Conference on Ronald Dworkin’s Forthcoming Book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do? A Symposium on Michael Sandel’s Recent Book, Originalism and Living Constitutionalism and On Constitutional Obligation and Disobedience. The papers from all of these conferences were published in Boston University Law Review.

Before joining the faculty of Boston University School of Law, Fleming was the Leonard F. Manning Distinguished Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. While at Fordham, he organized or co-organized many conferences in constitutional theory, including Fidelity in Constitutional Theory, The Constitution and the Good Society, Rawls and the Law and A New Constitutional Order?, together with Theories of Constitutional Self-Government, Integrity in the Law and Theories of Taking the Constitution Seriously Outside the Courts, all published in Fordham Law Review. He also co-edited (with BU Law Professor Linda C. McClain) a symposium on Legal and Constitutional Implications of the Calls to Revive Civil Society, published in Chicago-Kent Law Review. In 2007, Fordham Law Review published a symposium on Minimalism versus Perfectionism in Constitutional Theory, focusing on Professor Fleming’s book, Securing Constitutional Democracy, along with Cass R. Sunstein’s book, Radicals in Robes. The papers from all of these conferences were published in Fordham Law Review.