Global and Comparative Public Law Colloquium: Ronald Dworkin and Robert Alexy as Legal Thinkers
Inge Rennert Professor of Law
University Professor, Joseph Straus Professor of Law, European Union Jean Monnet Chaired Professor, Director, Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice
Fall 2025
Wednesdays, 4:45–6:45 p.m.
Vanderbilt Hall, Room 202
The focus of this years colloquium will be the work of Ronald Dworkin and Robert Alexy. As two leading public law thinkers of the past 50 years, they reflect the challenges and preoccupations of liberal constitutional democracy as it rose to become the globally dominant legal form of organising states. We will read closely and study core texts, while also reflecting on the legal and political context in which they were written and compare them to competing accounts. Topics will include the the concept of law and extreme injustice, the nature of rights, the role and justification of judicial review, as well as civil disobedience and the place of international law.