Measuring Impact in Constitutional Law

Online
Essay
Empirical Constitutional Studies: Future Directions
Adam Chilton
Adam Chilton is a Professor of Law and the Walter Mader Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School.
Mila Versteeg
Mila Versteeg is the Class of 1941 Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and a Carnegie Fellow at the Andrew Carnegie Foundation of New York.

Our new book—How Constitutional Rights Matter—tries to answer a difficult empirical question: do constitutional rights actually change government behavior? We theorize that constitutional rights that protect individuals often fail to constrain governments, but that constitutional rights that protect organizations can be powerful tools to push back against repression.

Online
Essay
Experimental Methods in Constitutional Law
Adi Leibovitch
Adi Leibovitch is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Alexander Stremitzer
Alexander Stremitzer is the Professor of Law, Economics, and Business at ETH Zurich, Visiting Professor of Law and Senior Scholar in Residence at UCLA Law School, and the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

They are grateful to Adam Chilton, Katerina Linos, and Mila Versteeg, for comments on earlier versions of this Essay. They are also indebted to the participants of the Book Conference on Measuring Impact in Constitutional Law held at Chicago in 2020. They thank Costanza Maria Improta for excellent research assistance.

Aright to legal representation has recently been introduced in some Chinese provinces but not in others.

Online
Essay
Constitutional Comprehensibility and the Coordination of Citizens: A Test of the Weingast-Hypothesis
Jerg Gutmann
Jerg Gutmann is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hamburg’s Institute of Law and Economics and a CESifo Affiliate in Munich.
Mahdi Khesali
Mahdi Khesali is a Research Assistant at the University of Hamburg’s Institute of Law and Economics and a Research Associate at the Max Plank Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
Stefan Voigt
Stefan Voigt is a Director of the University of Hamburg’s Institute of Law and Economics and a CESifo Fellow in Munich.

Some constitutions promise paradise on earth. It is, therefore, not surprising that in many countries constitutional reality does not keep pace with constitutional promise.

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Knowing the Law
Kevin L. Cope
Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Charles Crabtree
Assistant Professor, Department of Government, at Dartmouth College.

Ensuring compliance with laws that constrain the state is one of public law’s central challenges.

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Essay
The Mutualism of Human Rights Law and Interest Groups
Zachary Elkins
Zachary Elkins is Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas, at Austin and co-director of the Comparative Constitutions Project.

I recall vividly a flight that I took about ten years ago.  As my wife and I boarded the plane, the pilot greeted us at the threshold—a nice touch.  I couldn’t help but notice his necktie, and maybe that was the point.  It was emblazoned with “Second Amendme

Online
Essay
How Constitutional Rights Matter: Thoughts on the New Gold Standard in Empirical Constitutional Studies
Ran Hirschl
Ran Hirschl is Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Toronto, holder of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Comparative Constitutionalism at the University of Göttingen, and heads the Max Planck Fellow Group in Comparative Constitutionalism.
Alexander Hudson
Alexander Hudson is a Democracy Assessment Specialist in the Democracy Assessment Unit of International IDEA’s Global Programmes in Stockholm.

Professors Adam Chilton and Mila Versteeg’s How Constitutional Rights Matter is simply a game changer.