Stephen Levinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 659248 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen Levinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen |
| FAMILY NAME | Levinson |
| SIGNATURE | LEVINSON S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0563-6927 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 205 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1968 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
From Abstraction to Possibility? The Case of a New Constitutional Convention
Has the owl flown with regard to ‘the constitutional theory of political liberalism’
These are difficult times for the project of ‘political liberalism’. Frank Michelman is one of the most distinguished advocates for liberal constitutionalism, and one can only wonder if the time has past – that is, if the ‘owl of Minerva’ has perhaps flown – with regard to a constitutional project identified very much with the mid-20th century
Vaulting Ambition: FDR's Campaign to Pack the Supreme Court by Michael Nelson
Vaulting Ambition homes in on a variety of separate decisions that, taken together, comprise “FDR’s Campaign to Pack the Supreme Court.” They range from his decision to wait until after his re-election in 1936 in effect to spring it, without any genuine preparation on unsuspecting members of Congress and the public at large, to his stubborn refusal to accept the possibility of a compromise that would have given him fewer new seats than he desired…
Confronting the Modern Executive: Four Perspectives
It is no secret that political power in the United States and elsewhere has, overall, shifted to “the executive” and away from legislatures. There may be debate about whether this is a product of willful “overreaching” by executives or whether, within the United States, Congress has instead willingly ceded power by engaging in what Justice Cardozo in 1935 called “delegation run riot.” The concern about executive power has perhaps become heightene…
The brooding omnipresence of Carl Schmitt in contemporary jurisprudence: Reflections on William Scheuerman’s The End of Law : Carl Schmitt in the 21st century
Carl Schmitt, whatever his clear deficiencies as a human being and excesses in his overall thought, is, by any objective measure, one of the leading jurisprudential figures of the 20th century. And the questions he raised – about the inevitably of discretionary decision-making in the age of the modern administrative state; the breakdown of liberal parliamentarism; or the importance of that ‘emergencies’ must play in any cogent jurisprudential the…
War and Moral Responsibility: A Philosophy and Public Affairs Reader
An Argument Open to All: Reading "The Federalist" in the 21st Century
From one of America’s most distinguished constitutional scholars, an intriguing exploration of America’s most famous political tract and its relevance to today’s politics In An Argument Open to All, renowned legal scholar Sanford Levinson takes a novel approach to what is perhaps America’s most famous political tract. Rather than concern himself with the authors as historical figures, or how The Federalist helps us understand the original intent …
Identifying the Jewish Lawyer: Reflections on the Construction of Professional Identity
Democracy and Dysfunction
Introduction -- Do we have a dysfunctional constitution? -- Dysfunction and the rise of Donald Trump -- Constitutional crisis -- Constitutional rot -- Executive power and constitutional dictatorship -- Conclusions
James Fishkin's Unconventional Challenge to Thinking about Elections and Representation
Jim Fishkin's important book sets out a number of challenges to the conventional wisdom of political scientists and lawyers (and, for that matter, pundits and politicians) about what would count as serious “reform” of a now much-criticized system of elections and political representation within the United States and elsewhere. Drawing from both ancient Athens and the findings of contemporary political philosophy and empirical political science, F…
Alexander Hamilton and the Development of American Law
We are living in “the Age of Hamilton,” sparked by the remarkable cultural event that is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage production Hamilton, closely based on Chernow’s magnificent biography.1 Brown now offers a thorough treatment of Hamilton’s contributions to “the development of American law.” Although she takes note of Hamilton’s abstract pronouncements in his essays as Publius in The Federalist, the real contribution of this valuable book comes fr…
How Failed Attempts to Amend the Constitution Mobilize Political Change
According to legendary Green Bay Packers’ coach Vince Lombardi, “[W]inning isn't everything; it's the only thing.” There are many reasons to doubt Lombardi, but Hartley offers a particularly interesting one for any student of American politics and constitutional development. In this slim but rich book, he argues that failures to amend the United States Constitution have affected, with notable frequency, sometimes deep and important changes in the…
Karin Loevy, Emergencies in Public Law: The Legal Politics of Containment
Karin Loevy, a research scholar at the Institute of International Law and Justice at NYU School of Law, has written an excellent book of interest to anyone who thinks about the freighted topic of emergency powers and its place in what might be called standard-form constitutional theory. The fundamental importance of the book—and what makes it a genuine contribution to the literature—is less its legal analysis and critique, however able, and more …
David Cole, Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law
David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown Law Center and, as well, a prominent civil liberties litigator, has written an excellent book about the role that “civil society groups” play in “shaping constitutional law” (p. 6). His aim is to develop a “richer understanding of how constitutionalism works in practice” as well as, for at least some readers, helping to “inform future movements” as to productive tactics in achieving “constitutional change…
A Welcome Defense of Democracy
Against critics of capacious notions of democratic rule by “the many,” Hélène Landemore vigorously defends what she calls “democratic reason” because of the epistemic value of active deliberation by diverse groups of people. Deliberation is necessary to overcome isolated reasoning (where one might prefer an educated “expert” over an “average” citizen), and diversity is necessary to overcome the potential echo chamber created by conversations in a…
Philosophical Interventions: Reviews 1986–2011
Communities of readers depend, in large measure, on intermediaries between the plethora of published books and individuals who have to decide which among them actually to read themselves. Martha Nussbaum’s collected reviews, over a twenty-five-year period, present not only thoughtful and interesting comments on a wide variety of books and subjects but also a model for the craft of book-reviewing
Do Constitutions Have a Point? Reflections on “Parchment Barriers” and Preambles
Constitutions serve (at least) two central functions. One is to settle certain controversies by offering a definitive solution, such as adoption of a presidential or parliamentary system, a one-house or two-house legislature, or guaranteeing a certain term of years to judicial appointees. Not surprisingly, there is rarely litigation about such solutions, even if one finds them troublesome; instead, one can suggest amending the constitution or eve…
Language Acquisition and Conceptual Development
Democracy and the Extended Republic: Reflections on the Fishkinian Project
Democracy and the Extended Republic:Reflections on the Fishkinian Project Sanford Levinson (bio) When holding a "town meeting" during a visit to Strasbourg early in his term of office, President Obama told a German student, "We spend so much time talking about democracy—and obviously we should be promoting democracy everywhere we can."1 One might, of course, write a full essay about the extent to which we should or, perhaps more to the point, can…
Democracy and the Extended Republic
Response to the Symposium
Research Article| January 01 2009 Response to the Symposium Sanford Levinson Sanford Levinson Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Good Society (2009) 18 (1): 52–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/20711320 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Sanford Levinson; Response to the Symposium. The Good Society 1 January 2009; 18 (1): 52–56. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/20711320 Download citation fil…
Slavery and the Phenomenology of Torture
Sanford Levinson Slavery and the Phenomenology of Torture THE YEAR 2 0 0 7 WILL BE THE SESQ UICENT ENNIAL OF THE D R E D SC O TT case, perhaps the m ost reviled case in American constitutional history because of its endorsem ent of slavery as constitutionally protected.1 Slavery m ight have been evil, but this did not prevent its full integra tion into the warp and woof of American constitutional law, not least because the presum ed overarching …
Law & the humanities: An uneasy relationship
Preserving Constitutional Norms in Times of Permanent Emergencies
Cognition at the heart of human interaction
Sometimes it is thought that there are serious differences between theories of discourse that turn on the role of cognition in the theory. This is largely a misconception: for example, with its emphasis on participants’ own understandings, its principles of recipient design and projection, Conversation Analysis is hardly anti-cognitive. If there are genuine disagreements they rather concern a preference for ‘lean’ versus ‘rich’ metalanguages and …
Semantic Typology and Spatial Conceptualization
This project collected linguistic data for spatial relations across a typologically and genetically varied set of languages. In the linguistic analysis, we focus on the ways in which propositions may be functionally equivalent across the linguistic communities while nonetheless representing semantically quite distinctive frames of reference. Running nonlinguistic experiments on subjects from these language communities, we find that a population's…
Natural Concepts' in the Spatial Topologial Domain--Adpositional Meanings in Crosslinguistic Perspective: An Exercise in Semantic Typology
Most approaches to spatial language have assumed that the simplest spatial notions are (after Piaget) topological and universal (containment, contiguity, proximity, support, represented as semantic primitives suchas IN, ON, UNDER, etc.). These concepts would be coded directly in language, above all in small closed classes suchas adpositions-thus providing a striking example of semantic categories as language-specific projections of universal conc…
Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies
Cognition at the heart of human interaction
Sometimes it is thought that there are serious differences between theories of discourse that turn on the role of cognition in the theory. This is largely a misconception: for example, with its emphasis on participants’ own understandings, its principles of recipient design and projection, Conversation Analysis is hardly anti-cognitive. If there are genuine disagreements they rather concern a preference for ‘lean’ versus ‘rich’ metalanguages and …
The Canons of Constitutional Law
Academic and political debates about what texts are canonical in the liberal arts have been occurring for some time.In this Commentary, Professors Balkin and Levinson discuss canons and canonicity in the study of law in general and of constitutional law in particular.Canons, they contend, are not simply collections of texts.Skills, approaches, forms of argument, standard examples, and even stock stories can be equally canonical to a discipline or…
Law & the humanities: An uneasy relationship
Has the owl flown with regard to ‘the constitutional theory of political liberalism’
These are difficult times for the project of ‘political liberalism’. Frank Michelman is one of the most distinguished advocates for liberal constitutionalism, and one can only wonder if the time has past – that is, if the ‘owl of Minerva’ has perhaps flown – with regard to a constitutional project identified very much with the mid-20th century
A Welcome Defense of Democracy
Against critics of capacious notions of democratic rule by “the many,” Hélène Landemore vigorously defends what she calls “democratic reason” because of the epistemic value of active deliberation by diverse groups of people. Deliberation is necessary to overcome isolated reasoning (where one might prefer an educated “expert” over an “average” citizen), and diversity is necessary to overcome the potential echo chamber created by conversations in a…
Testimonial Privileges and the Preferences of Friendship
Professor Levinson distinguishes two dfficulties in the law of testimonialprivilege. Thefirst is that of identifying the core of concerns that the law ofprivilege is intended to address.The second is that of explaining how the structure of the positive law "its" these core concerns.Analysis of the first dfficulty shows that privilege law imputes to intimacy a value that is not reducible to the individualistic concerns that underlie the privilege …
Philosophical Interventions: Reviews 1986–2011
Communities of readers depend, in large measure, on intermediaries between the plethora of published books and individuals who have to decide which among them actually to read themselves. Martha Nussbaum’s collected reviews, over a twenty-five-year period, present not only thoughtful and interesting comments on a wide variety of books and subjects but also a model for the craft of book-reviewing
Preserving Constitutional Norms in Times of Permanent Emergencies
Torture in Iraq & the rule of law in America
Doubts about the legal and moral legitimacy of American interrogation practices in the war on terror 1⁄2rst emerged in regard to Afghanistan.In January of 2003, for example, The Economist published a remarkable set of articles on torture, detailing some of America's more dubious practices.Yet as the editors of The Economist noted, within the United States itself the discussion of torture was "desultory."That all changed in May of 2004
Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies
Communications
The Democratic Faith of Felix Frankfurter
New Perspectives on the Reconstruction Court
Fidelity to Law and the Assessment of Political Activity (Or, Can a War Criminal Be a Great Man?)
The Role of the Supreme Court in American Government
From the Diaries of Felix Frankfurter
Journal Article From the Diaries of Felix Frankfurter Get access Lash Joseph P., From the Diaries of Felix Frankfurter. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975. xiii, 366 pp. $12.50. Sanford Levinson Sanford Levinson Assistant Professor Department of Politics, Princeton University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 21, Issue 1, January 1977, Pages 80–83, https://…
Taking Law Seriously: "Reflections on "Thinking like a Lawyer
Under Cover: The Hidden Costs of Infiltration
C onsider the movie The Sting. In that lighthearted film, Paul Newman and Robert Redford (or, rather, the characters they acted) devised a Big Con, outwitting the gambler played by Robert Shaw. They created an entire reality-a Chicago betting parlor-for Shaw's observation, even if not for his benefit. As viewers we took delight in knowing what Shaw did not-that nothing was as it appeared to be, and that he was about to pay a big price for his fai…
Educational Policy-Making and the Courts: An Empirical Study of Judicial Activism . Michael A. Rebell , Arthur R. Block
Law
Testimonial Privileges and the Preferences of Friendship
Professor Levinson distinguishes two dfficulties in the law of testimonialprivilege. Thefirst is that of identifying the core of concerns that the law ofprivilege is intended to address.The second is that of explaining how the structure of the positive law "its" these core concerns.Analysis of the first dfficulty shows that privilege law imputes to intimacy a value that is not reducible to the individualistic concerns that underlie the privilege …
Public Lives and the Limits of Privacy
The general topic of this symposium—the interplay between public careers and private lives in the selection of presidential candidates—is important. Many debates around dinner tables undoubtedly followed the disclosure by the Miami Herald of Gary Hart's time spent with Donna Rice. In the United States especially, as Tocqueville pointed out 150 years ago, we tend to believe that the law speaks with insight, even if not necessarily with finality, o…
Rhetoric and the Law
Constitutive Conversation or Desperate Discourse
Constitutional Faith
Journal Article Constitutional Faith. By Sanford Levinson. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. xii + 250 pp. $19.95.) Get access John E. Semonche John E. Semonche University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 76, Issue 1, June 1989, Page 230, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908373 Published: 01 June 1989
Legal Rhetoric and Cultural Critique: Notes toward Guerrilla Writing
Books in Review
Constitutional Faith
Passion, System, and First Amendment Jurisprudence
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The Ambiguity of Political Virtue: A Response to Wolgast
Passion, System, and First Amendment Jurisprudence
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Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies
Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies
The Canons of Constitutional Law
Academic and political debates about what texts are canonical in the liberal arts have been occurring for some time.In this Commentary, Professors Balkin and Levinson discuss canons and canonicity in the study of law in general and of constitutional law in particular.Canons, they contend, are not simply collections of texts.Skills, approaches, forms of argument, standard examples, and even stock stories can be equally canonical to a discipline or…
Semantic Typology and Spatial Conceptualization
This project collected linguistic data for spatial relations across a typologically and genetically varied set of languages. In the linguistic analysis, we focus on the ways in which propositions may be functionally equivalent across the linguistic communities while nonetheless representing semantically quite distinctive frames of reference. Running nonlinguistic experiments on subjects from these language communities, we find that a population's…
Political science (46 works) · Law (41 works) · Sociology (36 works) · Philosophy (28 works) · Law (23 works) · Politics (22 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works)