The American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) has appointed BC Law professor Richard Albert chair of a term-limited committee tasked with preparing a report on how the ASCL can build closer and more fruitful scholarly and professional connections with the social sciences.
“I believe this will be of much value for the future of the Society and also for scholarship in both social sciences and comparative law,” said David J. Gerber, president of ASCL and distinguished professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. “I am delighted that Richard and the rest of the committee have agreed to help us think about the way forward.”
In addition to Albert, the Special Committee on Comparative Law and the Social Sciences will consist of Tom Ginsburg (University of Chicago Law School), Ran Hirschl (University of Toronto Law School), Katerina Linos (UC Berkeley School of Law), Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton Law School), Holger Spamann (Harvard Law School), and Mila Versteeg (University of Virginia School of Law). The Rapporteur for the committee will be Joshua Braver (Yale Law School).
According to Gerber, the ASCL Executive Committee will consider whether to endorse the recommendations in the committee’s report for adoption by ASCL membership at the 2016 annual meeting, which will be held at the University of Washington School of Law in the late fall.
Albert is a constitutional law professor at BC Law, where he specializes in constitutional law and comparative constitutional law. His research focuses primarily on comparative constitutional change, including both formal and informal constitutional amendment. In 2010, he received the Hessel Yntema Prize from ASCL, given annually to a scholar under the age of 40 to recognize “the most outstanding article” on comparative law. He has published peer-reviewed papers on comparative constitutional change in the American Journal of Comparative Law, the International Journal of Constitutional Law, the McGill Law Journal and the Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence.