James E. Fleming
The Honorable Frank R. Kenison Distinguished Scholar in Law; Professor of Law, School of Law
James E. Fleming writes in constitutional law and constitutional theory and is the author or co-author of five scholarly books and is working on a sixth.
Professor Fleming is the co-author of two constitutional law textbooks: American Constitutional Interpretation (Foundation Press, 6th ed., 2019) (with Walter F. Murphy, Sotirios A. Barber, and Stephen Macedo) and Gay Rights and the Constitution (Foundation Press, 2016) (with Sotirios A. Barber, Stephen Macedo, and Linda C. McClain).
He also is co-author of the fifth edition of Tort and Accident Law: Cases and Materials (West Academic, 2023) (with the late Robert E. Keeton and Lewis D. Sargentich of Harvard Law School, Gregory C. Keating of University of Southern California Law School, and Leonard J. Feldman of Seattle University School of Law).
From 2008 to 2012, Professor Fleming was Editor of NOMOS, the annual book of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy. In that capacity, he edited or co-edited four books:
* Getting to the Rule of Law (New York University Press, 2011)
* Evolution and Morality (New York University Press, 2012) (with Sanford Levinson of University of Texas)
* Passions and Emotions (New York University Press, 2013)
* Federalism and Subsidiarity (New York University Press, 2014) (with Jacob Levy of McGill University)
Professor Fleming received his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Politics from Princeton University after earning his A.B. summa cum laude 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 Edmond J. 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 or co-organized a number of conferences in constitutional theory and legal and political philosophy, including 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; On Constitutional Obligation and Disobedience; America’s Political Dysfunction: Constitutional Connections, Causes, and Cures; and A Symposium on Ronald Dworkin’s Religion without God. 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. 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. Fleming 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.