Speaker Series: Aziz Rana

Scholars and commentators increasingly worry that the United States is facing a constitutional crisis, but the exact contours of this crisis remain underspecified.  In this talk, Aziz Rana argues that the present moment is best understood as marked by the collapse of a midcentury constitutional compact that was consolidated over the course of three critical decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s.  This consolidation took place against the backdrop of Cold War dynamics and global decolonization.  Thus, the American constitutional project was forged through and gained meaning from its antagonism with the Soviet Union.  Today, the Soviet Union is long gone and the country has witnessed a steady defection from the terms of that past compact.  The result has been institutional breakdown, without a clear pathway for reconstructing shared legal and political practices.  All of this suggests that democratic renewal will likely require more than simply restoration of a past settlement, but a far more extensive undertaking in constitutional transformation.

To register, contact Sophie Kofman at skofman@abfn.org. 

Aziz Rana is the J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government. He joins Boston College from Cornell Law School, where he was the Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law. His research and teaching center on American constitutional law and political development. In particular, Rana’s work focuses on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped legal and political identity since the founding of the country.