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person1990s-present

Adrian Vermeule

Disciplines:
political philosophy
law

Summary

American legal scholar who has contributed to administrative law and has more recently argued for 'common good constitutionalism' — a natural law-based alternative to both originalism and living constitutionalism.

Core Contribution

Judging Under Uncertainty: judges should defer to legislatures under uncertainty. Common Good Constitutionalism: the constitution should be interpreted in light of the classical natural law tradition's account of the common good — a rejection of both originalism and living constitutionalism.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Common Good Constitutionalism is an explicitly anti-liberal constitutional theory — it argues that the constitution should be interpreted to advance substantive goods (family, community, hierarchy) rather than procedural neutrality.

Notable Works & Achievements

Judging Under Uncertainty

Common Good Constitutionalism

Historical Influences

Thomas Aquinas Lon Fuller

Intellectual Lineage

American Legal Scholarship

Contemporaries & Peers

Cass Sunstein

Minds Influenced

Conservative Legal Theory

Intellectual Posterity

Common Good Constitutionalism

Discussing

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