Stephen Gardbaum

Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law

  • B.A. Oxford, 1980
  • C.P.E. College of Law, London, 1981
  • M.Sc. Sociology and Politics, University of London, 1985
  • Ph.D. Political Theory, Columbia, 1989
  • J.D. Yale, 1990
  • UCLA Faculty Since 1998

Stephen Gardbaum holds the Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law at UCLA School of Law. Previously, he held the rotating MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights. An internationally recognized constitutional scholar, he was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2012-13 Straus Fellow at New York University. Gardbaum received a B.A. with First Class Honors from Oxford University, an M.Sc. from London University, a Ph.D. in Political Theory from Columbia, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and teaches constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, European Union law, international human rights, and comparative law. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he taught at Northwestern University School of Law and has been a visiting professor at Melbourne Law School, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Panthéon-Assas University (Paris II), Aix-Marseille University, and the Radzyner Law School of the IDC Herzliya. He is an elected member of the Council of the International Society of Public Law.

Professor Gardbaum's research focuses on comparative constitutional law and constitutional theory. His widely-reviewed book The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism: Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2013) explores a novel form of human rights protection in Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. He was the keynote speaker at the 2009 Protecting Human Rights conference in Australia, part of the major debate in that country about adopting this new model through a national human rights act. A collection of his articles on the comparative structure of constitutional rights was reprinted as a book by the European Research Center of Comparative Law. Another article was selected for inclusion in Classics in Comparative Law (T. Ginsburg, P. Montaeri and F. Parisi eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014).

Gardbaum's work has appeared, among other places, in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and the University of Chicago Law Review. Recent publications include: “The Counter-Playbook: Resisting the Populist Assault on Separation of Powers,” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (2020); “Comparative Political Process Theory,” International Journal of Constitutional Law (2020); "Pushing the Boundaries: Judicial Review of Legislative Procedures in South Africa," Constitutional Court Review (2019); "Populism and Institutional Design: Methods of Selecting Candidates for Chief Executive" (with Richard Pildes), New York University Law Review (2018); "Due Process of Lawmaking Revisited," University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law (2018); "Political Parties, Voting Systems, and the Separation of Powers," American Journal of Comparative Law (2017); "The Indian Constitution and Horizontal Effect," in Sujit Choudhry, Pratap Mehta and Madhav Khosla eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2016). His scholarship has been cited by the U.S. and Canadian Supreme Courts, and widely translated.

Bibliography

  • Books
    • The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism: Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press (2013). Abstract
    • La Estructura Comparativa de los Derechos Constitucionales. Collection of articles translated from English by Natalia Bernal Cano, European Research Center of Comparative Law (2012).
  • Articles And Chapters
    • What the World Can Teach Us About Supreme Court Reform, 70 UCLA L. Rev. Discourse 184 (2023).
    • Democratic Design and the Twin Contemporary Challenges of Fragmented and Unduly Concentrated Political Power, (edited by Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq, Tarun Khaitan, The Entrenchment of Democracy: The Comparative Constitutional Law of Elections, Parties and Voting, forthcoming 2022). Full Text
    • How Constitutional Rights Matter (book review), 69 American Journal of Comparative Law 615 (2022). Full Text
    • The Structure of a Free Speech Right, in The Oxford Handbook on Freedom of Speech, (edited by Adrienne Stone & Frederick Schauer, Oxford University Press, 2021). Full Text
    • The Counter-Playbook: Resisting the Populist Assault on Separation of Powers, 59 (1) Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 1 (2020). Full Text
    • Comparative Political Process Theory: A Rejoinder, 18 International Journal of Comparative Law 1503 (2020).
    • Comparative Political Process Theory, 18 International Journal of Constitutional Law 1429 (2020). Full Text | SSRN
    • Uncharismatic Revolutionary Constitutionalism, in Revolutionary Constitutionalism: Law, Legitimacy, Power, (edited by Richard Albert, Hart Publishing, 2020). Full Text
    • Pushing the Boundaries: Judicial Review of Legislative Procedures in South Africa, 9 (1) Constitutional Court Review (2019). Full Text
    • Weak-form review in comparative perspective: A reply, 17 International Journal of Constitutional Law 931 (2019). Full Text
    • Due Process of Lawmaking Revisited, 21 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 1 (2018). Full Text
    • Populism and Institutional Design: Methods of Selecting Candidates for Chief Executive (with Richard Pildes), 93 New York University Law Review 647 (2018). Full Text
    • What Makes for More or Less Powerful Constitutional Courts?, 29 (1) Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 1 (2018). Full Text
    • What is Judicial Supremacy?, in Comparative Constitutional Theory, (edited by Gary Jacobsohn & Miguel Scor, Elgar Publishing, 2018). Full Text
    • Positive and Horizontal Rights: Proportionality's Next Frontier or a Bridge Too Far?, in Proportionality: New Frontiers, New Challenges, (edited by Vicki Jackson and Mark Tushnet, Cambridge University Press, 2017). Full Text
    • Political Parties, Voting Systems, and the Separation of Powers, 65 (2) American Journal of Comparative Law 229 (2017). Full Text
    • Revolutionary Constitutionalism, 15 (1) International Journal of Constitutional Law 173 (2017). Full Text
    • How Do and Should We Compare Constitutional Law?, in Comparing Comparative Law, (edited by Samatha Besson, Lukas Heckendon & Samuel Jube, Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, 2016). Full Text
    • The Indian Constitution and Horizontal Effect, in Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, (edited by Sujit Choudhry, Madhav Khosla and Pratap Mehta, Oxford University Press, 2016). Full Text
    • Comparing Constitutional Bad Faith, 129 Harvard Law Review Forum 158 (2016). Full Text
    • Decoupling Judicial Review from Judicial Supremacy, in Democratizing Constitutional Law: Perspectives on Legal Theory and the Legitimacy of Constitutionalism, (edited by Thomas Bustamante & Gonçaves Fernandez, Springer, 2016).
    • What's So Weak About "Weak-Form Review"? A Reply to Aileen Kavanagh, 13 International Journal of Constitutional Law 1040 (2015). Full Text
    • Are Strong Constitutional Courts Always a Good Thing for New Democracies?, 53 (2) Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 285 (2015). Full Text
    • A Comparative Perspective on Reforming the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, 10 (4) Policy Quarterly 33 (2014).
    • Separation of Powers and the Growth of Judicial Review in Established Democracies (or Why has the Model of Legislative Supremacy Mostly Been Withdrawn from Sale?), 62 (3) American Journal of Comparative Law 613 (2014). Full Text
    • Proportionality and Democratic Constitutionalism, in Proportionality and the Rule of Law: Rights, Justification, Reasoning, (edited by Grant Huscroft, Bradley Miller and Grégoire Webber, Cambridge University Press, 2014). Full Text
    • The Case for the New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism, 14 German Law Journal 2229 (2013). Full Text
    • Private Actors and Constitutional Rights, in Israeli Constitutional Law in the Making, (edited by Gideon Sapir, Daphne Barak-Erez and Aharon Barak, Hart Publishing, 2013).
    • The Place of Constitutional Law in the Legal System, in Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law, (edited by Michel Rosenfeld and Andras Sajo, Oxford University Press, 2012). Full Text
    • The Comparative Structure and Scope of Constitutional Rights, in Research Handbook in Comparative Constitutional Law, (edited by Rosalind Dixon and Tom Ginsburg, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011). Full Text
    • How Successful and Distinctive is the Human Rights Act? An Expatriate Comparatist's Assessment, 74 Modern Law Review 195 (2011).
    • Reassessing the New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism, 8 International Journal of Constitutional Law 167 (2010). Full Text
    • A Democratic Defense of Constitutional Balancing, 4 Law & Ethics of Human Rights 78 (2010). Full Text
    • Human Rights and International Constitutionalism, in Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law and Global Government, (edited by Jeff Dunoff and Joel Trachtman, Cambridge University Press, 2009). Full Text
    • The Myth and the Reality of American Constitutional Exceptionalism, 107 Michigan Law Review 391 (2008). Full Text
    • Human Rights as International Constitutional Rights, 19 European Journal of International Law 749 (2008). Full Text
    • A Reply to “The Right of Reply”, 76 George Washington Law Review 1065 (2008).
    • Limiting Constitutional Rights, 54 UCLA Law Review 789-854 (2007). Full Text
    • State and Comparative Constitutional Law Perspectives on a Possible Post-Roe World, 51 St. Louis University Law Journal 685 (2007). Full Text
    • The Breadth versus the Depth of Congress’s Commerce Power, in Federal Preemption: States' Powers, National Interests, (edited by Richard Epstein and Michael Greve, AEI Press, 2007). Full Text
    • Where the (State) Action Is, 4 International Journal of Constitutional Law 760-79 (2006). Full Text
    • Congress’s Power to Preempt the States, 33 Pepperdine Law Review 100-130 (2005). Full Text
    • The “Horizontal Effect” of Constitutional Rights, 102 Michigan Law Review 388-459 (2003). Full Text
    • The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism, 49 American Journal of Comparative Law 707-60 (2001). Full Text
    • Law, Incommensurability, and Expression, 146 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1687-1700 (1998). Full Text
    • The Federalism Implications of Flores, 39 William & Mary Law Review 665-88 (1998). Full Text
    • New Deal Constitutionalism and the Unshackling of the States, 64 University of Chicago Law Review 483-566 (1997). Full Text
    • Liberalism, Autonomy, and Moral Conflict, 48 Stanford Law Review 385-417 (1996). Full Text
    • Rethinking Constitutional Federalism, 74 Texas Law Review 795-838 (1996). Full Text
    • The Nature of Preemption, 79 Cornell Law Review 767-815 (1994). Full Text
    • Broadcasting, Democracy, and the Market, 82 Georgetown Law Journal 373-96 (1993). Full Text
    • Law, Politics, and the Claims of Community, 90 Michigan Law Review 685-760 (1992). Full Text
    • Why the Liberal State Can Promote Moral Ideals After All, 104 Harvard Law Review 1350-371 (1991). Full Text
  • Other
    • Prime Minister of the 0.3 Per Centers, Blog - Brexit Institute at Dublin City University (Aug. 1, 2019). Full Text
    • Is the GOP Tax Law Unconstitutional?, San Francisco Chronicle (Dec. 22, 2017). Full Text
    • The Single and General New Commonwealth Model: A Response to Ran Hirschl and Sujit Choudhry, 11 International Journal of Constitutional Law 1100 (2013).
    • Empire Rises, Balkinization symposium on Bruce Ackerman's The Decline and Fall of the American Republic, Balkin.Blogspot.com (October 16, 2010). Full Text
    • Book Review, 112 Ethics 838-41 (2002). Reviewing Constitutional Revolutions:  Pragmatism and the Role of Judicial Review in American Constitutionalism, by Robert J. Lipkin.
    • Preemption, in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (edited by Leonard W. Levy, Ken Karst, et al., Macmillan, 2000).
    • Contributor, Recent Developments in U.S. Constitutional Law, Revue française de Droit constitutionnel (1999-present).

Courses Available

LAW 148

Constitutional Law I
LAW 277

Comparative Constitutional Law
LAW 278

Comparative Law
LAW 348

European Union Law
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