Christine Desan Named Professor of Law

Christine Desan, assistant professor of law since 1992, has been named a professor of law. Her areas of interest include American constitutional history, legal and political thought, civil procedure, and statutory interpretation.

"I am interested in the ways people create constitutional traditions -- regimes of practice and justification that shape the human interaction," explains Desan. "A constitutional project requires both action -- a set of decisions about the collective orders, and theory -- a claim of legitimacy. Both practice and legitimization are, of course, always open to challenge. My work attempts to trace the change that then occurs."

"Christine Desan is an excellent teacher and scholar and brings a great deal to the School in the area of American constitutional history," said Law School Dean Robert Clark.

Desan's courses have included Separation of Powers in Anglo-American History; Civil Procedure; and Legal History: Constitutional History and Colonial Period to the Early Republic. Her publications include "The Constitutional Commitment to Legislative Adjudication in the Early American Tradition," 111 Harvard Law Review 1381 (April 1998) and "Writing Constitutional History Beyond the Institutional/Ideological Divide," 16 Law and History Review 391 (Summer 1998).

In 1981, Desan received an A.B. in religion from Princeton University and, in 1987, a J.D./M.A.L.D. from Yale Law School and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. After graduation, she worked in the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General.