Bruce Ackerman

 

Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale, and the author of nineteen books in political philosophy, constitutional law, and public policy. He is a Commander of the French Order of Merit, a member of the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The American Philosophical Society has awarded him the Henry Phillips Prize for lifetime achievement in Jurisprudence, especially noting his exploration of the great turning points in American constitutional history in his three volume series, We the People. His award-winning early work, Social Justice in the Liberal State, continues to provoke contemporary controversy.

His scholarship has had a global impact. He has been named a Leading Global Thinker by Foreign Policy magazine, and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Trieste, Italy, for his contributions to comparative constitutional law. Before the Next Attack (2006) served as a basis for the reform of the French constitution dealing with emergency powers. The Stakeholder Society (with Anne Alstott) has served as the basis for reform initiatives in Brazil, Britain, and elsewhere that guarantee every person a fair share of the nation’s wealth by providing them with a “citizen stake” consisting of a substantial cash grant as they reach maturity.

 

His recent book, Revolutionary Constitutions (Harvard: 2019) puts the worldwide constitutional crisis in historical perspective by comparing the postwar experience of countries as different as France, India, Iran, Italy, Israel, Poland, South Africa, and the United States — and suggests that these nations have a good deal to learn from one another in confronting the current assault on checks-and-balances. His arguments have generated a world-ranging discussion, provoking the publication of four Symposium volumes in which leading academics and jurists from around the world have greatly enriched comparative constitutional understanding. For the relevant volumes, see the curriculum vitae.

 

More recently, he has published The Postmodern Predicament (Yale: 2024), dealing with the fundamental ways the internet revolution is transforming the struggle for a meaningful life — from the very first moment that a youngster picks up his first cellphone. Ackerman argues that 20th-century existentialists, like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, offer crucial insights into the shattering challenges of the internet age — and follows their lead in proposing a series of decisive reforms that promise to reduce — if not eliminate – the clear and present danger to constitutional democracy in the postmodern world.

 

Personal Biographic Statement

Contact

5 Killam’s Point
(203) 483-6718
(203) 432-0065
bruce.ackerman@yale.edu

Education

• LL.B., Yale, 1967
• B.A., Harvard, 1964