Bruce Ackerman
LL.B., Yale Law School, 1967
B.A., Harvard University, 1964
- The Civil Rights Era
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Constitution of the Modern Republic
- Constitutional Law
- The Constitution: Philosophy, History, and Law
- Social Justice
LL.B., Yale Law School, 1967
B.A., Harvard University, 1964
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.
Read Professor Ackerman's Personal Biographic Statement.
Revolutionary Constitutions, Harvard University Press: May, 2019
When Melvin the Camel Meets Donald Trump (with Cody Visnick), 2017
We the People, Vol. 3: The Civil Rights Revolution, Harvard University Press: (2014)
The Decline and Fall of the American Republic
Harvard University Press: 2010
Before the Next Attack
Yale University Press: 2006.
The Failure of the Founding Fathers
Harvard University Press: 2005.
Deliberation Day (with James Fishkin)
Yale University Press: 2004.
Voting with Dollars (with Ian Ayres)
Yale University Press: 2002.
The Stakeholder Society (with Anne Alstott)
Yale University Press: 1999.
(German translation: Campus, 2001).
La Politica del Dialogo Liberal
Gedisa: 1999
The Case Against Lameduck Impeachment
Seven Stories Press: 1999.
We the People, Vol 2: Transformations
Harvard University Press: 1998. (Chinese: Law Press China, 2003).
Is NAFTA Constitutional? (with David Golove)
Harvard University Press: 1995.
The Future of Liberal Revolution
Yale University Press: 1992. German: Ein neuer Anfang fuer Europa, Siedler: 1993. Spanish: Ariel, 1995. Polish: Terminus, 1996.
We the People, Vol 1: Foundations
Harvard University Press: 1991. French: Au Nom du Peuple, Calmann-Levy, 1998.
Reconstructing American Law
Harvard University Press: 1984. Spanish: Del Realismo Al Constructivismo Juridico, Ariel: (1989)
Clean Coal/Dirty Air (with Hassler)
Yale University Press: 1981.
Social Justice in the Liberal State
Yale University Press: 1980. Italian: Il Mulino, 1984; Spanish: Centro de Estudios Constitutionales, 1993.
Private Property and the Constitution
Yale University Press: 1977.
The Uncertain Search for Environmental Quality (with Rose-Ackerman, Sawyer and Henderson)
Free Press: 1974
De-Schooling Constitutional Law, 123 Yale Law Journal 3104 (2014).