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David Yalof, University of Connecticut, david.yalof@uconn.edu

The 2010 meeting’s theme of “The Politics of Hard Times” offers an excellent opportunity for scholars within our division to reflect on the various ways in which poor economic conditions and stresses exert influence over constitutional law and jurisprudence.  Negative economic conditions jolted the nation’s political system in the early 1930’s, and the constitutional system was forced to accommodate these new economic realities, or risk becoming obsolete and ineffective.  When governments today (domestic or foreign) become more interventionist in response to economic crises, what is the effect these actions have on constitutional practices?  When racial, ethnic and class cleavages are heightened, do constitutional understandings (and the structures built around those understandings) ameliorate these tensions, or exacerbate them?   Can a “fixed constitution” resistant to change effectively survive times of economic stress?  Certainly the division of constitutional law and jurisprudence welcomes papers and proposals on all topics, but we especially encourage submissions that connect the convention’s overall theme of citizens and nations “under economic stress” with the study of constitutionalism, constitutional law (broadly conceived) and jurisprudence in the United States and around the world. 

Given the meeting’s location in the U.S. capital, proposals that consider the ways that economic conditions have influenced the federal government’s role in the constitutional system would seem especially appropriate.  Our division has traditionally encouraged proposals for panels that that offer opportunities for participation by a mix of senior scholars, junior scholars and graduate students.  Finally, when proposing book panels, please consider submissions that include more than one book, and if possible, submissions that link the work of an established scholar with the work of a more junior, emerging scholar.