Research
The Constitution of Everyday Life: A Comparative Law and Policy Project
In this multi-year project, CICL will explore how fundamental societal institutions, such as the family, workplace, and healthcare systems, have been shaped in various legal cultures in the shadow of distinct foundational political principles. We are particularly interested in how conceptions of individual autonomy, liberty, and agency function to either restrain or legitimate governmental interventions and exercises of power, as well as how and when such interventions can be justified in the interest of societal or collective wellbeing in each legal culture.
The project will use an interdisciplinary approach, comparing the distinct political and legal cultures of other societies with that of the United States and their role in shaping notions of individual and state responsibility. We hope to partner with several groups or centers at universities in various parts of the world in undertaking this project.
We anticipate a series of workshops, in-person and accessible on Zoom, beginning in January 2023. The first four sessions will be on contrasting theories/philosophies of state power and responsibility. We are aiming to have some visiting scholars interested in this topic come to Emory Law and hope to host a small in-person workshop in 2023.
We will hold an additional series of four sessions on specific social institutions and relations established and regulated by law and policy. These sessions will also be comparative, contrasting the institutional arrangements imagined in different legal/political cultures. The three areas currently planned are: institutions and relationships of: (a) social reproduction, such as the family and education; (b) commercial/economic, such as employment and corporate structures; and (c) public/social welfare, such as health care and social security systems.