constitution

Contra Koppelman: What Mere Natural Law Was About

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Editors Note: This piece originally appeared in the Per Curiam section of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy as a response to a review by Prof. Andrew Koppelman of Hadley Arkes’s Mere Natural Law. It is reproduced here with permission from the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

The Tragedy of “Progressive” Prosecution with Gerry Bradley

Delivered on November 1, 2024, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., we bring you the remarks of Professor Gerry Bradley from the Tragedy of “Progressive” Prosecution. Since George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, the U.S. has undergone a significant reevaluation of its criminal justice system and has moved towards a more “progressive”

His Wisdom Persists Into Our Modern Age: Reviewing Two Books on Abraham Lincoln

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Reviewing Allen C. Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith – Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024) and Harold Holzer, Brought Forth On This Continent – Abraham Lincoln And American Immigration (Dutton, 2024) The character, career and enduring legacy of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, continue to fascinate and inspire both scholars and the

Obligations, the Other Side of the Coin as Rights: An essay in response to Daniel Mark’s “The Nature of Law”

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This essay originally appeared in the Center on Religion Culture and Democracy‘s Reading Wheel. It is reprinted with permission. Right-of-center writers on philosophy and law have penned some fascinating books in recent years calling attention to rights as well as their attendant obligations. From Adrian Vermeule with Common Good Constitutionalism, to Erika Bachiochi with The

Restoring Constitutional Unity with Yuval Levin

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Join host Garrett Snedeker and JWI Intern Joshua Janniere for an interview with Yuval Levin on his recent book American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation – and Could Again. In this podcast, Professor Levin discusses the crisis of unity in America and his hopeful vision for the future of republican revival. He outlines

Judicial Value Judgments and the Common Good

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Introduction “Common good constitutionalism” is chiefly a criticism of what might be helpfully described as “mainstream” legal conservatism—the prescription for constitutional adjudication exemplified in the opinions of Antonin Scalia and those (in and out of the judiciary) who follow his lead. The “common-good” constitutionalists’ critique centers on the stated commitment of contemporary judicial conservatism to originalism;

Anchoring Truths
Anchoring Truths is a James Wilson Institute project
The James Wilson Institute’s Mission is to restore to a new generation of lawyers, judges, and citizens the understanding of the American Founders about the first principles of our law and the moral grounds of their own rights.
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