Murphy discusses new book

The Constitution must evolve in order for the law to keep pace with a changing world, politics professor emeritus Walter Murphy argued Friday afternoon.

Murphy, the former McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, said that a constitutional democracy like the United States requires both "constitutional interpretation" and "constitutional maintenance."

"The only way to maintain a constitutional order is to change it as the world changes," Murphy said.

His comments came during a symposium on his latest book, "Constitutional Democracy." A panel of six scholars, all with close personal ties to Murphy, discussed their reactions to some of the ideas set forth in the new book. They spoke to an audience of about 75 people in the Whig Hall Senate Chamber.

Several panelists noted the novelistic style of the book, a trait not usually found in academic or scholarly works.

"One of the most interesting things about this book is that much of it reads like a work of fiction," Wilson School professor Kim Scheppele said. "This style of writing is something that's really quite unusual in this field." Scheppele described how a portion of Murphy's book recounts the story of delegates at a constitutional convention for a fictional country.

Jim Fleming, a law professor at Fordham University, said he supported Murphy's concept of constitutional maintenance. "A constitutional democracy is not a machine that can take care of itself," Fleming said. "It requires constant repair to maintain the system."

But Fleming added that he worries "the word 'maintenance' may make it sound more like a trade than an art," referring to Murphy's concept of the "art of constitutional interpretation."

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Jeff Tulis, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin, focused on the difficulty of "diagnosing" what needs to be changed in a constitution when people disagree about what aspects of the government need to be fixed.

"Most people think of constitutional law as what courts and judges do, and this book isn't about that," Tulis said. "It's really about regime design."

Mark Brandon, a professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University, discussed whether there is a distinction between unbiased civic education in a constitutional democracy and political indoctrination. The issue is one Murphy raises in his book.

Brandon referred to Murphy's belief that maintaining constitutional democracy depends on individuals' attachment to the nation and loyalty to the constitutional order.

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"One function of civic education is to engender and cultivate this attachment and loyalty, and this is the part which aims, in Walter's terms, at 'changing souls,' " Brandon said.

"I do think, though, that it's possible and potentially dangerous to love the policy of a nation too much," he added. "I think there's a danger if the citizens' core attachments not only center on the state, but are [also] dictated by the state."

Murphy concluded the symposium by arguing the importance of widespread and varied constitutional interpretation.

"If you let just one person or one institution or one branch of government decide what a constitutional order means, you've set up a dictatorship," he said.

Murphy also encouraged the audience to engage in active study of the Constitution. "As citizens, we have an obligation to be informed, and then to speak, reason and think about the Constitution," Murphy said.

The symposium was sponsored by the Program in Law and Public Affairs, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and the University Center for Human Values.