Democracy Workshop: Tom Ginsburg, “The Duties of Universities in a Backsliding Democracy”

Tom Ginsburg is Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity and the Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression at University of Chicago Law School. He focuses on comparative and international law from an interdisciplinary perspective. His latest book is "Democracies and International Law" (2021), winner of two best book prizes. His prior books include "How to Save a Constitutional Democracy" (with Aziz Z. Huq, 2018), which won the best book award from the International Society of Constitutional Law; "Judicial Review in New Democracies" (2003), which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association; "The Endurance of National Constitutions" (with Zachary Elkins and James Melton, 2009), which also won a best book prize from APSA; and "Judicial Reputation" (with Nuno Garoupa, 2015). He currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, an effort funded by the National Science Foundation to gather and analyze the constitutions of all independent nation-states since 1789. 

Before entering law teaching, Ginsburg served as a legal adviser at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and The Hague (Netherlands), and continues to work with numerous international development agencies and foreign governments on legal and constitutional reform. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-host of the "Entitled" podcast on human rights. He holds BA, JD, and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.