Event preview: Richard Epstein on interpreting the Constitution
On Tuesday, the influential legal scholar Richard Epstein of NYU Law School will join Theodore Ruger of Penn Law School and Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center to offer his distinctive interpretation of the Constitution—the classical liberal theory.
A graduate of Yale Law School and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Epstein is also the founding director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU. His research spans a broad array of disciplines, including law, economics, history and philosophy.
Epstein is also not one to shy away from popular debate and controversy. In recent weeks, the scholar has weighed in on the Comcast-Time Warner merger (in favor), EPA regulations (against), and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s approach to foreign policy (“demolishes” it, according to a creative Washington Post headline).
Order your tickets now to see Richard Epstein at the National Constitution Center.
In his most recent treatise, The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government, Epstein grapples with the reigning paradigms of constitutional law. He eschews Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein’s argument that “incompletely theorized disagreements” sustain our political order.
“The more accurate description of the present impasse is that the recurrent and sharp splits on constitutional law come from what are more accurately described as ‘completely theorized disagreements’ on all fundamental legal questions,” he writes. “These current disputes start with basic disagreements about human nature, language, knowledge, and institutions.”
In contrast, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists who fought over the original crafting and ratification of the Constitution shared many assumptions about government and society, says Epstein.
“Their entire debate,” he writes, “rested on a sober and shared appreciation of the potentially corrosive effects of self-interest on human affairs, a modest confidence that our collective capacities with language and cooperation allow us to devise institutions capable of coping with these ever-present risks without bringing government to a standstill, and a deep suspicion of government monopolies of all sorts and descriptions.”
How, then, might we think about constitutional interpretation today?
“At root, the classical view of American constitutionalism examined all legal interventions under a presumption of error,” Epstein says. “The structural protections of the separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism and the individual rights guarantees built into the basic constitutional structure were all part of combined efforts to slow down the political process that, left to its own devices, could easily overheat.”
He ultimately argues that “the [classical] view of the Constitution was correct, not only for the conditions of 1787 but also, most emphatically, for vastly more complex conditions today.”
The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 9. A book signing will follow.
Admission is free, but reservations are recommended. Order tickets online or call 215.409.6700.
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