This meeting will be led by Professor Philip Hamburger (Columbia Law School).

This reading group will explore the relationship between conceptions of natural law and the American Constitutional tradition. We will look at the sources that influenced America’s founders as well as texts by the founders themselves, especially James Wilson. The reading group will then look at debates about the relationship between natural-law thinking and constitutional interpretation in Supreme Court cases and contemporary political philosophers. Faculty from Columbia Law School and other universities in the New-York Metropolitan area will participate in the discussions.

This reading group is open to graduate students only. We will be in Jerome Greene Hall 908, Columbia Law School for each of our reading group meetings.

Co-sponsored by the Columbia Federalist Society.

Schedule

• Monday, January 27: Sources of the American Founding I

• Monday, February 10: Sources of the American Founding II

• Monday, February 24: Texts of the American Founding

• Monday, March 9: James Wilson

• Monday, March 23: The Supreme Court

• Monday, April 6: Beyond the Constitution