David E. Landau
David E. Landau
Ph.D. (Political Science), Harvard University, 2015
J.D., magna cum laude, Harvard University, 2004
A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard University, 2001
Professor David Landau’s scholarship focuses on constitutional design, constitutional theory, and comparative constitutional law. His recent work has focused on a range of issues with contemporary salience both in the United States and elsewhere around the world, including constitutional change and constitution-making, judicial role and the enforcement of rights, impeachment, and the erosion of democracy. His scholarship is interdisciplinary, combining insights from law and political science.
Professor Landau’s work has been or is forthcoming in leading law journals, including the California Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the International Journal of Constitutional Law, and the Harvard International Law Journal. His monograph Abusive Constitutional Borrowing (co-authored with Rosalind Dixon) was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. He has previously published several other books and edited volumes with Oxford University Press and Edward Elgar Press.
Professor Landau’s work has been cited by the high courts of several countries, including the Supreme Court of Israel, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of Colombia, the Constitutional Tribunal of Chile, the Supreme Federal Tribunal of Brazil, and the Supreme Court of Kenya.
Professor Landau received a Fulbright specialist grant to Chile in 2022, during that country’s ongoing constitution-making process. In 2011, he served as a consultant on constitutional issues for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Honduras. Since 2012, he has been a founding editor of ICONnect, the blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law, and serves on the Scientific-Advisory board of the same journal. He has published op-eds in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
At the College of Law, Professor Landau has taught Constitutional Law I, Comparative Constitutional Law, Public International Law, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, and International Litigation and Arbitration. He has twice won a University Graduate Teaching Award, in 2012-2013 and 2019-20. He also serves as Associate Dean for International Programs, and in that capacity supervises the graduate LL.M. Program in American Law for Foreign Lawyers, the Certificate Program in International Law for J.D. students, and the College of Law’s Summer Program at Oxford University.
Select Recent and Forthcoming Publications
Abusive Constitutionalism, in Edward Elgar Handbook on Constitutionalism and Legal Theory __ (Edward Elgar Press, Jaclyn Neo & Yaniv Roznai, eds., forthcoming)
On Constitutional Design and Democratic Resilience, in Research Handbook on Constitutions and Democracies __ (Edward Elgar Press, Tom Gerald Daly & Anna Dziedzic, eds., forthcoming)
Authoritarian Populism and the Use of Law to Erode Democracy, in Oxford Handbook of Law and Authoritarianism __(Cora Chan, Madhav Khosla, Benjamin Liebman, & Mark Tushnet, eds., Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
Courts are Not Enough: Independent Accountability Institutions and the Protection of Democracy in the United States, 2026 University of Illinois Law Review __ (forthcoming)
Utopian Constitutionalism, 67 Harvard International Law Journal 513 (forthcoming)
Judging Emergencies, 105 Texas Law Review __ (forthcoming)
Comparative Constitutional Law and Politics: Analysis, Cases, and Materials (textbook, with Tom Ginsburg and Mila Versteeg, Oxford University Press, 2025)
Local Politics and Regional Rights: Reflections on Comparative International Law in the Americas, in Latin American International Law, (Alejandro Chehtman, Alexandra Huneeus, and Sergio Puig, eds., Oxford University Press (2025)
Ancillary Powers of Constitution-Making Bodies, in Redefining Comparative Constitutional Law: Essays for Mark Tushnet, (Vicki C. Jackson and Madhav Khosla, eds., Oxford University Press 2025)
Transitional Norms in Constitutions, 50 Yale Journal of International Law 1 (2025)
Defensive Social Rights, in Oxford Handbook of Economic and Social Rights, (with Rosalind Dixon), (Malcolm Langford and Katharine G. Young, eds., Oxford University Press 2024)
Constitutions and Abusive Electoral Regulation, (with Rosalind Dixon), in The Entrenchment of Democracy, (Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Z. Huq, and Tarun Khaitan, eds., Cambridge University Press 2024)
The Unsettled Canon of Social Rights Enforcement in Latin America, in Global Canons in an Age of Uncertainty: Debating Foundational Texts of Constitutional Democracy and Human Rights, 427, (Sujit Choudhry, Michaela Hailbronner, and Matthias Kumm, eds.), Oxford University Press (2024)
Impeachment in Comparative Perspective: An Empirical View, in Impeachment in a Global Context: Law, Politics, and Comparative Practice, 321, (with Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq), (Chris Monaghan, Matthew Flinders, and Aziz Z. Huq, eds., Routledge 2024)
The Covid-19 Emergency and Instability in Latin America, in Pandemocracy in Latin America, 219, (Pablo Riberi, ed., Hart Publishing 2024)
Constraining Constitution Making, (with Adam Chilton, Cristián Eyzaguirre, and Mila Versteeg), 1 Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis 52 (2024)
Utopian Constitutionalism in Chile, (with Rosalind Dixon), 12 Global Constitutionalism 228 (2024)
The Justiciability of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, (with Angelika Nussberger, Intersentia, 2023)
Restorative Constitutionalism, (with Rosalind Dixon), 81 Washington and Lee Law Review 455 (2024)
Democracy’s Other Boundary Problem: The Law of Disqualification, (with Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq), 111 California Law Review 1633 (2023)
Dobbs, Democracy, and Dysfunction, (with Rosalind Dixon), 2023 Wisconsin Law Review 1569 (2023)
Rethinking the Federal Emergency Powers Regime, 83 Ohio State Law Journal 603 (2023)
Two Models of Protecting Democracy: Federalism and the U.S. Deviation, 70 Drake Law Review 605 (2023)
Sobre fracaso constitucional, constitucionalismo transformador y utopismo (On constitutional failure, Transformative Constitutionalism, and Utopianism), (with Rosalind Dixon), 21 International Journal of Constitutional Law 1549 (2023)
Judicial Reform or Abusive Constitutionalism in Israel, (with Rosalind Dixon and Yaniv Roznai), 56 Israeli Law Review 292 (2023)
Socioeconomic Rights in Latin America: Closing the Gap between Aspiration and Reality, 57 Revista Derecho Del Estado 7 (2023)