Prof. Dr. Ran Hirschl (Max Planck Fellow), 2018-2021

Ran Hirschl (Ph.D., Yale University) is a Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Toronto, holder of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Comparative Constitutionalism at the University of Göttingen, and heads the Max Planck Fellow Group in Comparative Constitutionalism. He is the author of several major books, including City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity (Oxford University Press, 2020); Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press, 2014)—winner of the 2015 APSA Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts; Constitutional Theocracy (Harvard University Press, 2010)—winner of the 2011 Mahoney Prize in Legal Theory; and Towards Juristocracy (Harvard University Press, 2004), as well as over 120 articles and book chapters on public law and its intersection with comparative politics and society. Professor Hirschl has won academic excellence awards in five different countries; served as Co-President of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S); and held distinguished Visiting Professorships at Harvard, Stanford, NYU, and NUS. His work on the intersection of social science and public law has been translated into various languages, discussed in numerous scholarly fora, cited by jurists and in high court decisions, and addressed in media venues from the New York Times to the Jerusalem Post. In 2014, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC)—the highest academic distinction in that country. The official citation describes him as “one of the world’s leading scholars of comparative constitutional law, courts and jurisprudence.”

Research projects

• Religion-infused narratives of membership in an age of political populism
• The sound of constitutional silence: urbanization, megacities, and the urban/rural divide
• Spatial statism (with Ayelet Shachar)
• Who belongs? National (but not international) judicialized mega-politics

Publications

Books

Ran Hirschl, City, State: Comparative Constitutionalism and the Megacity (Oxford University Press, 2020), 272 pp.

Ran Hirschl, Asuncos Comparativos: El Renacimiento del Derecho Constitucional Comparado (Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2019), 390 pp. [Translation into Spanish of Ran Hirschl, Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press, 2014)]

Published Articles and Book Chapters

Ran Hirschl, “Comparative Methodologies” Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law, Roger Masterman & Robert Schütze, eds., (Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 11-39.

Ran Hirschl & Ayelet Shachar, “Spatial Statism” International Journal of Constitutional Law 17 (2019): 387-438.

Ran Hirschl et al., “Justiciable and Aspirational Social Rights in National Constitutions,” The Future of Economic and Social Rights, Katherine Young, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 37-65.

Ran Hirschl & Jan Mertens, “Interdisziplinarität als Beereicherung: An den Grenzen von Verfassungsrecht und vergleichender Politikwissenschaft” Verfassungsrecht im Widerstreit [Constitutional Law in Conflict], Alexander Thiele and Joachim Münch, eds. (Mohr Siebeck, 2019), pp. 105-124.

Ran Hirschl and Ayelet Shachar, “‘Religious Talk’ in Narratives of Membership,” Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? Mark Graber, Sanford Levinson and Mark Tushnet, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 515-531.

Ran Hirschl, “Opting Out of ‘Global Constitutionalism’” Law & Ethics of Human Rights 12 (2018): 1-36.

Ran Hirschl, “Judicial Review and the Politics of Comparative Citation: Theory, Evidence and Methodological Challenges” Comparative Judicial Review, Erin Delaney and Rosalind Dixon, eds. (Edward Elgar, 2018), pp. 403-422.

Ran Hirschl, “Verfassungsrecht und vergleichende Politikwissenschaft – an den Grenzen der Disziplinen” Zeitschrift für Politik [Journal of Politics] 109 (2018): 15-31.

Ran Hirschl and Ayelet Shachar, “Competing Orders? The Challenge of Religion to Modern Constitutionalism” The University of Chicago Law Review 85 (2018): 425-455.

Ran Hirschl, “Going Global: Canada as Importer and Exporter of Constitutional Thought” Canada in the World: Comparative Perspectives on the Canadian Constitution, Richard Albert and David Cameron, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 305-323.

Ran Hirschl, “Secession and Nullification as a Global Trend” Constitutional Studies 2 (2017): 23-40 [reprinted in The Yale Global Constitutionalism Project (Judith Resnick ed., 2017)].

Ran Hirschl, “Early Engagements with the Constitutive Laws of Others: Possible Lessons from Pre-Modern Religious Law” Law & Ethics of Human Rights 10 (2017): 71-108.

Reprints of Older Publications

Ayelet Shachar and Ran Hirschl, “Citizenship as Inherited Property” Political Theory 35 (2007): 253–287. [Reprinted in Citizenship and Constitutional Law (Jo Shaw ed., Edward Elgar, 2018)].

Courtney Jung, Ran Hirschl, Evan Rosevear, “Economic and Social Rights in National Constitutions,” American Journal of Comparative Law 62 (2015): 1043-1094. [Reprinted in Comparative Constitutional Law (Mark Tushnet ed., Edward Elgar International Library of Comparative Law, 2017)].

Ran Hirschl, “From Comparative Constitutional Law to Comparative Constitutional Studies” International Journal of Constitutional Law 11 (2013): 1-12. [Translated to Turkish and republished in Anayasa Hukuku Dergisi (Journal of  Constitutional Law, Turkish Association of Constitutional Law), 2017]. [Reprinted in Comparative Constitutional Law (Mark Tushnet ed., Edward Elgar International Library of Comparative Law, 2017)].

Ran Hirschl and Ayelet Shachar, “The New Wall of Separation: Permitting Diversity, Restricting Competition” Cardozo Law Review 30 (2009): 2535–2560: [Reprinted in Comparative Constitutional Law (Mark Tushnet ed., Edward Elgar International Library of Comparative Law, 2017)]

Ran Hirschl, “The Question of Case Selection in Comparative Constitutional Law” American Journal of Comparative Law 53 (2005): 125–155: [Reprinted in Comparative Constitutional Law (Mark Tushnet ed. Edward Elgar International Library of Comparative Law, 2017)] [Reprinted in Comparative Law Methodology (Maurice Adams et al., eds. Edward Elgar International Library of Comparative Law, 2017)].

Ran Hirschl, Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism (Harvard University Press, 2004).  Excerpt reprinted in Comparative Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings, J. Tyler Dickovick and Jonathan Eastwood, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2017). 

Accepted for Publication (forthcoming)

Ran Hirschl, “Constitutions and the Metropolis” Annual Review of Law & Social Science 17 (forthcoming in 2020).

Ayelet Shachar & Ran Hirschl “‘Spatial Statism’: Response to our Interlocutors” International Journal of Constitutional Law 18 (forthcoming in 2020).

Ran Hirschl, Evan Rosevear, Courtney Jung, “The Constitutionalization of Social Rights: Trends and Patterns” Social Rights Jurisprudence, Malcolm Langford, ed. (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in 2020).

Ran Hirschl, “Constitutional Theocracy” Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism, András Sajó, Stephen Holmes and Renáta Uitz, eds. (Routledge, forthcoming in 2020).

Ran Hirschl, “Sustaining Interdisciplinary Scholarship in Comparative Law & Politics,” Concepts, Data & Method in Comparative Law and Politics, Diana Kapiszewski & Matthew Ingram eds. (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in 2020).

Ran Hirschl, “Urban Agglomeration, Megacities, Constitutional Silence”, European Yearbook of Constitutional Law (forthcoming in 2020).

Ran Hirschl, “Methodology and Research Design in Comparative Constitutionalism,” Constitutionalism in Context, David Law ed. (Cambridge University Press, in press, forthcoming in 2020).