Lecture to examine transformation in American political thought

Another controversial Supreme Court nomination has once again raised questions about the nature and meaning of the Constitution. Dr. Bradley Watson, professor at Saint Vincent College, will visit Salve Regina next week to discuss his idea of a “living” Constitution.

“The Living Constitution and the Decline of the Rule of Law” will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall. Sponsored by the Pell Honors Program, Watson’s lecture is open to the University community and the general public. Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP to pellhonors@salve.edu.

Watson’s lecture will examine the transformation in American political thought that underlies our understanding of a “living” or organic Constitution. The origins and implications of this transformation are traced back to American progressivism. According to Watson, grasping the philosophical, fundamentally historicist origins of contemporary jurisprudence best enables us to account for the contours of this jurisprudence and to elucidate the extent of its departure from the constitutionalism of the founders, and from the idea of the rule of law.

Watson is a professor of politics and the Philip M. McKenna Chair in American and Western Political Thought at Saint Vincent. He is also the co-director for the college’s Center for Political and Economic Thought.