2011 Edward S. Corwin Award

Awarded for the best dissertation completed and accepted during the past two calendar years in the field of public law.

Award Committee: Jennifer Nedelsky, Chair, University of Toronto; Kristin Bumiller, Amherst College; and Michael McCann, University of Washington, Seattle

Recipient: Emily Zackin, CUNY-Hunter College

Dissertation Title: "Positive Constitutional Rights in the United States"

Citation: Emily Zackin’s dissertation, “Positive Constitutional Rights in the United States,” provides a fresh examination of positive lawmaking through state constitutional change. She challenges the notion that the United States lacks positive constitutional rights by showing how mandates in state constitutions reflect serious commitments to an active state. The dissertation offers compelling evidence establishing the importance of state constitutional action throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. Her argument is adroitly presented by examining state action regarding education reform, labor regulation, and environmental protection. In these case studies, Zackin demonstrates how social movements have instigated state constitutional change as part of a larger strategy for policy reform. The analysis highlights how these constitutional provisions were designed not solely to provide avenues for individual litigants in the courts, but to set a moral direction for lasting reform. Her path breaking research has profound implications for how we understand political innovation in a federal system and illuminates the often under recognized significance of how social movements shape state constitutional rights.