Hybrid | Book Launch: The Entrenchment of Democracy

The Entrenchment of Democracy: The Comparative Constitutional Design of Elections, Parties and Voting

Chair: Professor Erin Delaney (UCL Laws)

Discussants: Professor Richard Bellamy (UCL), Professor Thomas Poole (LSE), Dr Leah Trueblood (University of Oxford)

Respondents: Professor Aziz Huq (University of Chicago), Professor Tarunabh Khaitan (LSE), Professor Yvonne Tew (Georgetown University)

Abstract

This event celebrates the launch of The Entrenchment of Democracy: The Comparative Constitutional Design of Elections, Parties and Voting (Cambridge University Press, 2024), edited by Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq, and Tarunabh Khaitan. 

About the Book

This volume of essays brings together a group of leading political scientists, legal scholars, and political theorists to describe and analyze the body of constitutional law and practice within and upon democratic institutions, in particular examining how constitutional law shapes electoral democracy. Constitutional law and practice on this question are complex and varied. This volume therefore takes a thematic and regional approach: it selects a range of key theoretical questions related to democratic constitutional design and offers a series of chapters featuring a diverse range of voices, as well as a blend of theory, qualitative studies, and quantitative methods. 

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About the Speakers

Richard Bellamy is a Professor of Political Science at UCL, having joined in 2005 as the College’s first Professor of Political Science. He was the Director of UCL’s European Institute, which he also established, from 2010 to 2013. From 2014 to 2019, he was Director of the Max Weber Post-doctoral Programme at the European University Institute. He was also a Visiting Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin 2022-2023, where he continues to be a Senior Fellow, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter 2012-2020. Richard is on the editorial boards of several journals, including the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Global Constitutionalism and the European Journal of Political Theory. He has co-edited the journal CRISPP (Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy) since 2001.

Erin Delaney joined UCL Laws as Leverhulme Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law in September 2024, and she serves as the Inaugural Director of the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism. She retains an affiliation with Northwestern University where she was Professor of Law at the Pritzker School of Law and Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at the Weinberg College of Arts and Letters. She is currently the Secretary General of the International Society of Public Law, Co-Editor of the Hart Series on Judging and the Courts, Co-Editor of the International & Comparative Law Section of JOTWELL, and a member of the editorial boards of Public Law and the Brill Series on Studies in Territorial and Cultural Diversity Governance. She is an elected Member of the American Law Institute, and an Advisory Board Member of the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law.

Aziz Huq is the Frank and Bernice J. Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and associate professor in the sociology department. Before teaching, he represented civil liberties claimants with the Brennan Center for Justice, and worked for the International Crisis Group in Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. His books include How to Save a Constitutional Democracy (2018, with Tom Ginsburg), The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies (2021), and The Rule of Law: A Very Short Introduction (forthcoming 2024). His work on AI and constitutionalism has been published in the Harvard Law Review, Daedalus, and several other scholarly venues. 

Tarun Khaitan is the Professor (Chair) of Public Law at the LSE Law School and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School. Previously, he has been the Head of Research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (Oxford), the Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory (Oxford), Vice Dean (Faculty of Law, Oxford), and a Visiting Professor of Law (Chicago, Harvard, and NYU law schools).

Thomas Poole joined LSE in 2006, and has been Professor of Law since 2015. His research interests include UK constitutional and administrative law, legal and political theory, foreign relations law, constitutional history, law and empire, and the history of political thought. He is author of Reason of State: Law, Prerogative and Empire (Cambridge, 2015) and co-editor of volumes on Hobbes and the Law (Cambridge, 2012), Law, Liberty and State: Oakeshott, Hayek and Schmitt on the Rule of Law (Cambridge, 2015) and The Double-Facing Constitution: Legal Externalities and the Reshaping of Constitutional Order (Cambridge, 2019).

Yvonne Tew has expertise in constitutional law, globally and in the U.S., and law and religion in global perspective. She is Professor of Law and Anne Fleming Research Professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., as well as the Faculty Director of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London. She is the author of Constitutional Statecraft in Asian Courts (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her scholarship has been published in the American Journal of Comparative Law, Virginia Journal of International Law, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, and Cambridge Law Journal, amongst others, as well as in book collections from Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Edward Elgar Publishing, and Routledge. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the American Society of Comparative Law and on the Executive Editorial Board of the American Journal of Comparative Law.

Leah Trueblood is Fellow and Tutor in Public Law at Worcester College, Oxford. She holds an LLB from the London School of Economics and a D.Phil. from Oxford. Her British Academy Funded Project 'Rumors of the Death of Political Parties are Greatly Exaggerated' is extremley behind schedule, but the first piece, 'Public Functions of Political Parties' was recently published in the Modern Law Review.  She is, generally, a delight. 

About the Co-Organisers

LSE Law School is one of the world’s top law schools with an international reputation for the quality of its teaching and legal research. The School is committed to building a vibrant, equitable, and truly inclusive environment, and has played a major role in policy debates, policy-making, and the education of lawyers and law teachers globally. LSE Law School’s approach is to challenge existing ways of thinking, and seek to understand the causes of things. 

The Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London is a one-of-its-kind global partnership in legal education, encompassing students and faculty from 22 world-class law schools. The Center offers students and faculty an unparalleled opportunity to participate in a semester-long intensive programme in international, comparative, and transnational law, unlike any conventional “study abroad” or exchange programme. The Center’s small size and multicultural orientation provide the opportunity for students to learn in a uniquely active, participatory way. 

The Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism, based at the UCL Faculty of Laws, seeks to advance scholarly understanding of the relationship between democratic government and the rule of law in domestic, comparative, and transnational perspective, with a particular focus on identifying the supporting conditions for constitutional resilience in electorally competitive political systems. 

Book Your Place

You can attend this event in-person at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (4th Floor, North West Wing, Bush House, 57 Aldwych, London WC2B 4PJ) or alternatively you can join via a live stream. Please note that the entrance to the North West Wing is on the right/west side of the main entrance of Bush House.

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