Mark E. Brandon
Professor of Law Professor of Political Science Affiliated Faculty, American Studies
Voice: (615) 322-3057
Fax: (615) 322-6631
Email: mark.brandon@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 242
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)
Links
Research Interest(s)
Problems of constitutional history, theory and interpretation; constitutional failure; family and the Constitution; war
Education
Ph.D. Princeton University
M.A. University of Michigan
J.D. University of Alabama School of Law
B.A. University of Montevallo
Biography
Mark Brandon’s scholarship focuses on problems of constitutionalism. He is the author of an important book, Free in the World (Princeton University Press), on American slavery and constitutional failure. He has also written on secession, federalism, limits to the amending power, and war in the American constitutional order. His current scholarship includes a forthcoming book on Family and Change in the American Constitutional Order (under contract with the University Press of Kansas) in which he explores the ways in which family might participate in creating, maintaining and changing a constitutional order, how that order might try to shape or use family, and how effective law can be in achieving either of these goals. His essay on "War and Constitutional Change" was published in The Limits to Constitutional Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2010). He is currently writing an essay on "Originalism and Purpose in Constitutional Interpretation." During the 2008-09 academic year, Professor Brandon was a visiting senior research scholar in the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Oklahoma, Princeton University and the University of Alabama, where he was the Frank B. Spain Chairholder of Law. He joined Vanderbilt's law faculty after serving as a visiting professor during 2000-01.
Representative Publications
Books
Free in the World: American Slavery and Constitutional Failure (Princeton University Press, 1998)
Articles
"War and Constitutional Change," in The Limits of Constitutional Democracy, Jeffrey K. Tulis and Stephen Macedo, eds. (Princeton University Press, 2010)
"War and the American Constitutional Order," in The Constitution in Wartime (Mark Tushnet, ed., Duke University Press, 2005). Abridgement of article in 56 Vanderbilt Law Review 1815 (2004)
"Federalism, Founders, and the Court: Remarks on Killenbeck," 57 Arkansas Law Review 69 (2004)
"Home on the Range: Family and Constitutionalism in American Continental Settlement," 52 Emory Law Journal 645 (2003)
"Secession, Constitutionalism, and American Experience," 44 NOMOS 272 (2003)
"Family at the Birth of American Constitutional Order," 77 Texas Law Review 1195 (1999)
"The 'Original' Thirteenth Amendment and Limits to Formal Constitutional Change," in Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment (Sanford Levinson, ed., Princeton University Press, 1995)
Working Papers
"The Preamble in American Constitutional Interpretation"
Family and Change in the American Constitutional Order (book in progress)
Presentations
“Originalism and Textualism in Constitutional Interpretation Today,” University of Pennsylvania Law School, January 25, 2013 (invited symposium)
"Originalism and Purpose in Constitutional Interpretation," SEALS panel “Originalism, Circa 2012,” July 2012
Some links on this page require the Adobe Acrobat Reader.