Skip to Content

Search: {{$root.lsaSearchQuery.q}}, Page {{$root.page}}

Law, Courts, and Politics

Law and politics is an expansive and methodologically diverse subfield that includes constitutional theory, philosophy of law, judicial politics, American constitutional development, comparative constitutional politics, international law, and law and society. Associated faculty conduct research that cuts across subfields and disciplines, and students can explore a wide range of issues about law, courts, and constitutional institutions. 

  • What are the features or characteristics of legal and constitutional institutions, and how do these institutions develop and function over time? 
  • Are constitutional institutions working as expected, and what might be done to maintain or improve their performance? 
  • How do constitutional values and jurisprudential traditions intersect with political behavior outside the courts? 

Students are encouraged to forge intellectual connections with faculty and programs outside the department while also benefitting from the wide-ranging interests in law held by faculty members in other subfields.