The field of constitutional studies owes a debt of gratitude to Susan Williams, the Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law at Indiana University. She will retire at the end of this current academic year, having shaped the field over four decades of excellence in scholarship, teaching, mentorship, and leadership.

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A graduate of Harvard University, she clerked for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. After earning tenure at Cornell University, she moved to Indiana University, where she founded the Center for Constitutional Democracy, the first-of-its-kind in the United States, and still, to this day, the only such institution in the entire English-speaking world. She has advanced constitutional rights and the rule of law around the world, from Burma to Cuba, Liberia to Vietnam, Jordan to Libya. She has been an inspiration to her students and colleagues, to civil society leaders and political actors, and to constitutional reformers fighting for dignity and equality for all. Thank you, Susan, for all you have contributed to constitutional studies, and to the world.

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If you have not met Susan, I invite to learn about her here, to read some of her work here, and to watch one of her lectures here. Here is her email address if you would like to send her a note of thanks and congratulations on her distinguished career in our field: shwillia@iu.edu.

Many scholars and lawyers are worried about the rule of law in the United States. More than 1000 law professors have signed an open letter declaring that “we believe we are in a constitutional crisis.” The President of the American Bar Association has issued two letters expressing his concerns for the rule of law in the United States, the first in February and the second just recently in March. And faculty at top law schools have recently issued letters of their own: Yale Law School on April 4, Harvard Law School on March 29, and the University of Virginia Law School on April 3. 

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Is the United States in a constitutional crisis? The short video below examines the term “constitutional crisis” and this 2009 paper by Sanford Levinson and Jack Balkin introduces a useful typology of constitutional crises.

Since October 2024, the Constitutional Court of Korea has been without its full complement of nine justices. Last week, Acting President Han Duck-soo filled the ninth seath with his appointment of Ma Eun-hyuk to the Court. A graduate of Seoul National University, Justice Ma was formerly a district court judge. At his installation ceremony, he pledged to “adhere strictly to the values set forth in the Constitution — popular sovereignty, liberal democracy, the rule of law and the principles of a welfare state.”

A new book, to be published next week, on the Constitution of France: The Forgotten Constitution: The Origins, Realization, and Legacy of the French Constitution of 1791. How did the Constitution entrench the principles of the French Revolution? How did the Constitution structure relations between the monarchy and the people? And how did the Constitution influence constitution-making beyond its national borders? This book promises to answer each of these questions, and many more.

In a new paper to be published in the Hong Kong Law Journal, Chong Bu argues that the Chinese Civil Code operates as a super-statute. As she explains in her draft, “the concept of a super-statute refers to an ordinary statutory law with constitutional characteristics, distinguished by its function, normative framework, and far-reaching impact.” She adds that “the Civil Code serves as an important legal instrument for governance, fulfilling key constitutional roles in regulating governmental behaviour, safeguarding rights, balancing social interests, upholding fundamental values and navigating societal advancement.” A paper worth reading! 

Meet Vanessa MacDonnell, an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) and Co-Director of the uOttawa Public Law Centre. She writes in the areas of Canadian constitutional law, constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, and criminal law. She is also the Canadian Principal Investigator on an interdisciplinary, international research project on unwritten constitutional norms and principles.

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I am currently trying to wrap up my PhD thesis, which uses ethnographic methods to study how constitutional issues come up and are addressed within Canada’s federal executive. My research examines both the big policy decisions that are at the heart of the government’s agenda, as well as the much less visible, day-to-day decision-making that implicates the constitution in some way.

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I am hoping to spend some time writing about Canada’s unwritten constitution – a paper on the underenforcement of unwritten constitutional principles in Canadian constitutional law, and a second paper on why the categories of “written” and “unwritten” are salient in Canadian constitutional discourse.  

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My paper on quasi-constitutional legislation – A Theory of Quasi-Constitutional Legislation, 53 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 508 (2016) – another topic I hope to write about again before too long!

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Editor's Note: If you would like to nominate someone for a future edition of “Three Questions,” please let me know!

 

The Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan has a new judge: Khanlar Valiyev. Formerly the military prosecutor in Azerbaijan, he took the oath of office last week. The Constitutional Court was created in 1998. It is composed of 9 judges. Each judge is appointed to a 15-year term by the national legislature on the recommendation of the President of the Republic.

I was happily surprised to receive the 2025 Faculty of the Year award from the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society, which also gave me the inaugural Derrick Bell Scholar Award. The inscription on the award reads that it is given “in  recognition of excellence in legal scholarship and inspiring future generations of lawyers.” It is a blessing to have a life of reading, writing, teaching, and learning. I am very grateful to have a job that does not feel like work!