Constitutionalism and the Free Society
Links to video in session titles
Wednesday, April 28
9 am
Welcoming remarks
Roundtable: Constitutionalism and constitutional backsliding in global perspective
Tom Ginsburg
Turkuler Isiksel
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Chair: Jacob Levy
Wednesday, April 28
11 am
Panel: Constitutionalism and constitutional institutions (1)
Arash Abizadeh, Counter-majoritarian democracy: Persistent minorities, federalism, and the power of numbers
Yasmin Dawood, Effective Governance and the Two Faces of Constitutionalism
David Watkins, Democratic constitutionalism and non-domination: state actors and the perils and promise of bureaucratic discretion
Chair/ discussant: Evan Fox-Decent
Wednesday, April 28
2 pm
Roundtable: Canadian constitutionalism: prospects and challenges
Kelly Gordon
Phillipe Lagassé
Christopher Manfredi
chair/ discussant: Victor Muñiz-Fraticelli
Wednesday April 28
4 pm
Panel: The history of constitutional thought
Teresa Bejan, Levelling
Guillaume Bogiaris, The Limiting Conditions of Resident-to-State Obligation in the Crito
Daniel Lee, The science of right
chair/ discussant: William Clare Roberts
Thursday April 29
9 am
Roundtable: Indigenous constitutionalism and constitutional politics
Yann Allard-Tremblay
Aaron James Mills
Christa Scholtz
chair: Yves Winter
Thursday April 29
11 am
Panel: Constitutionalism in Latin America
Marcela Prieto Rudolphy and Sergio Verdugo, Chile's constitution-making process: Revolution, evolution, and pragmatism
Claudia Heiss, Chile's constitution-making process: Building institutions in a state of exception.
Javier Couso Salas. On the competing conceptions of 'constitucionalism' behind the Bolivarian and liberal-democratic constitution-building processes of Latin America (1988-2021)
chair/ discussant: Manuel Balán
Thursday April 29
2 pm
Panel: Constitutionalism and constitutional institutions (2)
Erin Crandall, Are Canadian cities entrenched in provincial constitutions? A question of political constitutionalism
Roberto Gargarella, Judicial review for defective democracies
Hoi Kong, What Is the Canadian Constitution? Institutional and Normative Reflections
chair/ discussant: Geoffrey Sigalet
Thursday April 29
4:30 pm
Keynote address and RGCS Lecture
Melissa Schwartzberg, Constitutionalism and Local Knowledge: From the Black Death to COVID
Friday April 30
9 am
Panel: Contestation in constitutional theory
Nomi Clare Lazar, Constitutional alchemy
Geoffrey Sigalet, On comity and contestation: Republicanism and the separation of powers
chair/ discussant: Daniel Weinstock
Friday April 30
11 am
Graduate student panel
Wenyang Gao, Feeling Free and Speaking with Authority: Republican Freedom as Status Freedom
Jimmy Lim, Taking Thrasymachus Seriously: The Political Psychology of John Rawls
Vertika, Democracy is a Mirage of Equality! A Tocquevillean Reading of Contemporary Populism Illustrated by the Cases of France and Italy
chair/ discussant: Teresa Bejan
Friday April 30
2 pm
Panel: Constitutional transformations
Samuel Bagg, The ideal of resisting state capture
Elizabeth Beaumont, The Promise and Peril of Popular Constitutionalism for Constitutional Democracy
chair/ discussant: Victor Muñiz-Fraticellii
Friday April 30
4 pm
Panel: The Boundaries of constitutional inclusion
Éléna Choquette, Enlarging the British settler state of Canada: A liberal policy
Vrinda Narain, Constitutionalizing Women’s Equality Rights in India
Mariah Zeisberg, Family-making as constitutional activism in 19th century antislavery politics
chair/ discussant: Catherine Lu
Saturday May 1
10 am: Closing remarks
Victor Muñiz-Fraticelli
11 am- 6 pm
Political theory in/ and/ as political science, Junior scholars workshop
by invitation; to preserve free discussion in the workshop, this part of the event will not be recorded.
11 am
Alice Baderin, Lucy Barnes, and Lindsey Richards, “Inequality: From Distribution to Relationships”
Discussant: Josiah Ober
Glory Liu, “What’s the Matter with Inequality? Evidence from Surveys”
Discussant: Melissa Schwartzberg
2 pm
Alexandru Marcoci and Alexandra Oprea, Free Speech, Liberal Character, and the Educational Mission of the University
Discussant: Alison McQueen
Tamar Malloy, Reading, Writing, Respectability: The Disproportionate Application and Effects of Respectability Requirements in U.S. Schools
Discussant: Rob Reich
4 pm
Agnes Tam, Do Liberals Have to Fear Identity-Expressive Populism?
Discussant: Jack Knight
Maxime Lepoutre, Political Understanding
Discussant: Jacob Levy
This conference marks the tenth anniversary of RGCS and caps a three-year grant to RGCS from the John Templeton Foundation for the support of the study of "Constitutionalism as the political theory and political science of a free society." It is also a part the celebration of McGill's 200th anniversary. Additional support provided by grants from the Institute for Liberal Studies and the John Dobson Foundation.
The Research Group on Constitutional Studies Student Fellowship is a vital part of RGCS' intellectual life, and is in a capital campaign to build an endowment to ensure that the fellowship and its opportunities remain available for students in future years. Please consider adding your support.
Conference co-organizers: Jacob Levy and Victor Muñiz-Fraticelli.
Conference assistant: Jimmy Lim
Technical support: Shruti Predhep
Lin Centre administrative coordinator: Nina Ahrendt