UT Launches Interdisciplinary Center for Law and Democracy

The University of Texas at Austin has launched the Center for Law and Democracy, an initiative dedicated to supporting research, teaching and publishing at the intersection of public law and political science.

Housed in the College of Liberal Arts' Department of Government, the center has an interdisciplinary mission to bring together scholarship from across the college and the University to produce academically rigorous work with real-world impact.

"Democracies globally face an increasingly complex intersection of social, political and legal challenges," said Ashley Moran, center co-director and research scientist and lecturer in the Department of Government. "To diagnose and solve these challenges, states - and students training to work in those arenas - must draw on law, political science and other social sciences. The center tackles this need by bridging disciplines and critically examining these pressing challenges for democracy."

The center's core objectives are to:

• Deepen interdisciplinary work at the intersection of law and democracy.
• Accelerate innovative research that advances the rule of law and democracy globally.
• Provide unique courses and fieldwork that prepare students to lead in these fields.
• Convene communities across the University and across the globe to foster partnerships that advance research, teaching and publishing on law and democracy.

The center will be home to long-standing and new research on constitutional and comparative law, constitutional theory, and democratic institutions and processes. This includes existing research such as the Comparative Constitutions Project, which tracks topics and characteristics of current and historical written constitutions dating back to 1789, and the Concept Integration in Comparative Law project, which develops digital tools to improve constitutional design. New projects include public opinion research assessing constituent views on constitutional issues and conflict and governance research tracking violence targeting elections and government officials.

The center supports the college's minor in law, justice and society as well as courses, student research, democracy internships abroad and education abroad programs focused on law and democracy in nearly every region of the world. Cascading mentorship across undergraduate and graduate students and faculty members will further support scholarship at all levels.

"UT is recognized as one of the best places in the world to study public law and comparative law, from various theoretical and methodological approaches," said Zachary Elkins, center co-director and government professor. "We are very good at training students to go out in the world and solve problems through better institutions and better laws. This center puts a nice stamp on that strength."

The center's affiliated faculty members and students reflect UT's strength at this nexus across varied disciplines, with affiliates hailing from the University's Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, Department of Government, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Sociology, LBJ School of Public Affairs, School of Civic Leadership, and School of Law.