Thomas Crocker

Aufenthalt

Mai–Dezember 2011

Forschungsthema

»Overcoming Necessity: Emergency, Constraint, and Constitutional Commitment«

Projektbeschreibung

In my project, Overcoming Necessity: Emergency, Constraint, and Constitutional Commitment, I explore the relations between political claims of necessity and constitutional commitments in light of national security policy. This project examines how necessity challenges constitutional constraints by seeking to supersede reason and reflection in setting national policies and priorities while encouraging officials to view national constitutions as potential »suicide pacts«. In light of the special problems necessity raises, this project asks: how, and to what extent, should constitutional norms guide our responses to emergency? How should constitutional commitments and constraints address the rush of urgent circumstance? Overcoming Necessity defends liberal constitutionalism’s commitment to deliberation, self-determination, and political accountability, each of which depends on doing more than following the dictates of perceived necessity.

Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl)

• »From Privacy to Liberty: The Fourth Amendment After Lawrence«, in: UCLA Law Review, 57 (2009), S. 1-69. (ausgezeichnet als hervorragende Publikation von der Juristischen Fakultät der University of South Carolina, 2011).
• »Torture, with Apologies«, in: Texas Law Review, 86 (2008), S. 569-613 (review essay).
• »Overcoming Necessity: Torture and the State of Constitutional Culture«, in: SMU Law Review, 61 (2008), S. 221-280.
• »Displacing Dissent: The Role of Place in First Amendment Jurisprudence«, in: Fordham Law Review, 75 (2007), S. 2587-2639. (wieder abgedruckt in: The First Amendment Law Handbook, S. 736 (hg. von Rodney A. Smolla, Thomson West Publishers 2007‒2008, ausgezeichnet als hervorragende Publikation von der Juristischen Fakultät der University of South Carolina, 2007).
• »Envisioning the Constitution«, in: American University Law Review, 57 (2007), S. 1-71.
• »Still Waiting for the Barbarians: What Is New about Post-September 11 Exceptionalism? «, in: Law [&] Literature, 19 (2007), S. 303-326.
• »Wittgenstein’s Practices and Peirce’s Habits: Agreement in Human Activity«, in: History of Philosophy Quarterly, 15 (1998), S. 475-93.