The War Against Law: What’s Wrong with Common Good Constitutionalism - A Book Conversation with David Dyzenhaus

The War Against Law: What's Wrong with Common Good Constitutionalism 

A Book Conversation 

Co-sponsored by the JSD Program, the Institute for International Law and Justice and the Hauser Global Law School Program @NYU School of Law

Monday, September 28 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
@Snow Dining Hall, Vanderbilt Hall (VH), 4th Floor
40 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012

With a presentation by: David Dyzenhaus

and comments by:
Benjamin Straumann, Matilde Masetti Placci, Megan Pfiffer and Anja Bossow

Moderated by: Jeremy Waldron 

About the book:

Across the UK, the US and Europe, an intellectual and political movement is building against perceived "judicial overreach." David Dyzenhaus's new book, The War Against Law (CUP, 2026), is the first of its kind to examine the movement's ideological foundations and deleterious impact for the rule of law and liberal democracy.

The book takes the UK's Judicial Power Project and the controversial and ultimately unsuccessful 2024 Rwanda Act as its starting point. But, as Roberto Gargarella commented  in praise of the book, this "naturally leads Dyzenhaus towards the more ambitious objective he pursues in his work, namely the critical analysis of Common Good Constitutionalism.” Also the title of a book published by Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermeule in 2022, Dyzenhaus defines Common Good Constitutionalism as "a reactionary and illiberal ideology," designed to let government "rule by fiat, unchecked by the judiciary and the legislature. The “common good” is achieved only when a ruling leader promulgates it, and the pluralism associated with liberal democracies is eradicated.” The growing cadre of Common Good Constitutionalists would retort that the governments they support win elections and change constitutions legally, rather than seizing power by force. Yet, as Gargarella notes, the 'trick' lies in how they define and practice democracy itself. 

The panel will explore this tension between claims to legality and the substance of democratic rule. It will examine Dyzenhaus's position, the contending views, and ask what emerges for the rule of law, institutions, and liberal democracy.