This volume is an agenda-setting edited collection of essays that has the potential to open a new sub-field within comparative constitutional law looking at the relationship between Buddhism and public law in Asia. While the volume is interdisciplinary, bringing together contributions from law, politics, history, anthropology, and religious studies, a prominent theme is the relationship between Buddhism, constitutions, constitutional law, and constitutionalism(s). The insights offered by the essays on this aspect is of interest not only to those working on Buddhist Asia; they have wide-ranging significance for scholars of comparative constitutional law and general constitutional theory, especially at a time when the rise of Asian states is changing the nature of the international order and with it the normative universe within which public law operates.

Tom Ginsburg is the Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Faculty Director for the Forum on Free Inquiry and Expression, as well as the Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity.  He is also a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation. He holds B.A., J.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, and currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, an NSF-funded data set cataloging the world’s constitutions since 1789, that runs the award-winning Constitute website.  His latest book is Democracies and International Law (2021), winner of Best Book Prizes from the American Branch of the International Law Association and the American Society for International Law. He is also the author of How to Save a Constitutional Democracy (2018, with Aziz Huq), winner of the Best Book Prize from the International Society for Constitutional Law; Judicial Reputation: A Comparative Theory (2015) (with Nuno Garoupa); The Endurance of National Constitutions (2009) (with Zachary Elkins and James Melton), and Judicial Review in New Democracies (2003), the latter two both winning best book awards from the American Political Science Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Before entering law teaching, he served as a legal advisor at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, The Hague, Netherlands, and he has consulted with numerous international development agencies and governments on legal and constitutional reform.  He currently serves a senior advisor on Constitution Building to International IDEA.

Benjamin Schonthal is Professor of Buddhist Studies and Head of the Religion Programme at the University of Otago in Aotearoa/New Zealand, where he also co-directs the Otago Centre for Law and Society. Ben received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has held visiting positions at Northwestern University, the Institute for Advanced Studies (Bielefeld) and the Law School at the University of Chicago. Ben's research examines the intersections of religion, law and politics in South and Southeast Asia. He is the author of Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law (CUP) and co-editor of Buddhism and Comparative Constitutions (CUP 2022, with Tom Ginsburg). His current research project, Law's Karma, supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand, examines the institutions,  politics and practices of Buddhist law in contemporary Southern Asia.

The book is free to download from: Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law (cambridge.org)

This event is cosponsored by the University of Chicago Law School's International Programs, International Law Society, The Center for East Asian Studies, The Committee on Southern Asia Studies, The Divinity School, and The Pozen Family Center for Human Rights.

Lunch will be provided. Please submit dietary requests eight business days prior to the program to Aican Nguyen at aican@uchicago.edu. Although we will try to accommodate dietary needs, it is not guaranteed.