Panels open to the public. See conference schedule at bottom of page.
On July 4th, 2000, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions was founded to strengthen and renew civic education at Princeton and provide a model for reforming the study of civics in American higher education. Twenty-five…
Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program, and Cornel West, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Philosophy & Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary, will discuss their new book, Truth…
Adam Smith is famous as a champion of commercial growth. But he is arguably even more insightful -- and more relevant to our contemporary moment -- as a theorist of national decline. This lecture will survey his diagnosis of the chief existential threats to national stability, both internal and external.
Ryan …
The Supreme Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen established a new test for assessing the constitutionality of firearms regulations under the Second Amendment. Bruen's test focuses on the text of the Second Amendment and the history of the right to keep and bear arms.…
***RESCHEDULED TO WEDNESDAY APRIL 30TH AT 5 P.M.***
A lecture by Prof. Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard University School of Law) with a response by Prof. Stephen Macedo (Princeton University) at 5 p.m. on April 30th, 2025, in 100 Robertson Hall.
At a moment when the post-World War II international…
The United States is home to an enviable set of leading research institutions and colleges across the country. These institutions have fostered major scientific innovations, contributed to social mobility within the country, and been an attraction for students and faculty from around the world across disciplines. Yet, US higher education faces…
In democracies, the press has been described as the fourth branch of government because of the essential role that information plays in mobilizing citizens for political action. However, today, the trust that Americans have in mass media is at the lowest point on record. What accounts for this distrust, what political problems does it pose…
Please join us for a wide-ranging conversation about the philosophical and political stakes of academic neutrality, academic activism, and academic freedom - and the ways in which they intersect. Numerous peer institutions…
In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, many writers and commentators have signed woke’s death warrant. However, this ignores the fact that young people are substantially more likely than older people to prioritize social justice over free speech. For many, equal outcomes and emotional harm protection for totemic groups – racial, gender, sexual …
Lawyers have long distinguished private and public law. The former concerns the rights and duties of private persons and is studied in courses like contracts and torts. The latter concerns the powers and responsibilities of the state. Constitutional law, then, is supposed to be public law. But it turns out that much of…