The Partisan Republic: Democracy, Exclusion, and the Fall of the Founders’ Constitution, 1780s-1830s
Monday, April 8, 2019
BU School of Law
Barristers Hall
12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
This symposium celebrates the publication of “The Partisan Republic: Democracy, Exclusion, and the Fall of the Founders’ Constitution, 1780s-1830s” coauthored by Gerry Leonard and Saul Cornell (Fordham University).
The Partisan Republic is the first book to unite a top down and bottom up account of constitutional change in the Founding era. The book focuses on the decline of the Founding generation’s elitist vision of the Constitution and the rise of a more ‘democratic’ vision premised on the exclusion of women and non-whites. It incorporates recent scholarship on topics ranging 
from judicial review to popular constitutionalism to place judicial initiatives like Marbury vs Madison in a broader, socio-legal context. The book recognizes the role of constitutional outsiders as agents in shaping the law, making figures such as the Whiskey Rebels, Judith Sargent Murray, and James Forten part of a cast of characters that has traditionally been limited to white, male elites such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall. Finally, it shows how the ‘democratic’ political party came to supplant the Supreme Court as the nation’s pre-eminent constitutional institution.
To celebrate the publication of this timely and significant book, we have invited distinguished scholars to comment on it.
Introduction and Welcome by Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Moderator:
Kris Collins, Boston University School of Law
Commentators:
William Forbath, University of Texas School of Law
Bruce Mann, Harvard Law School
Cynthia Nicoletti, University of Virginia School of Law
All – including not only professors, law students, graduate students, and undergraduates, but also alumni and the general public – are welcome to attend the symposium. If you have academic questions about the program, please contact Professor James Fleming, jfleming@bu.edu.