Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair, Professor of Government, The University of Texas Law School

This very special annual lecture celebrates the work of the late Walter F. Murphy, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus, Princeton University, and his dedication to excellence in the study of American and comparative constitutional law theory.  A decade after joining the Princeton faculty, Professor Murphy was named the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, succeeding Woodrow Wilson, Edward S. Corwin, and Alpheus T. Mason in one of the Nation's most prestigious Chairs. 

Sanford V. Levinson holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law and is Professor of Government at the University of Texas. The author of  over 250 articles and book reviews in professional and popular journals, Levinson is the author of four books: Constitutional Faith, winner of the Scribes Award; Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies; Wrestling With Diversity; and, most recently, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It). His edited or co-edited books include a leading constitutional law casebook, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (5th ed. with Paul Brest, Jack Balkin, Akhil Amar, and Reva Siegel); Reading Law and Literature: A Hermeneutic Reader (with Steven Mallioux); Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment; Constitutional Stupidities, Constitutional Tragedies (with William Eskridge); Legal Canons (with Jack Balkin); The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion (with Batholomew Sparrow); and Torture: A Collection. He is a regular participant on the popular blog, Balkinization, is affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish Philosophy in Jerusalem, and is a member of the American Law Institute as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and Ph.D. from Harvard University.