Disharmonic constitution to be Texas scholar's topic

"The Disharmonic Constitution" is the title of this fall's Ronald J. Fiscus Lecture at Skidmore, to be presented by University of Texas scholar Gary Jacobsohn on Friday, Oct. 12. Free and open to the public, the lecture will begin at 8 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.  A reception will follow.

Jacobsohn's current research focuses on the question of constitutional change in comparative perspective. He is researching the concept of constitutional identity, employing a philosophical and comparative exploration of the idea. There are, according to the argument he is developing, attributes of a constitution that allow one to identify it as such, and there is a dialogical process of identity formation that enables one to determine the specific identity of any given constitution.

Representing a mix of aspirations and commitments expressive of a nation's past, constitutional identity also evolves in ongoing political and interpretive activities occurring in courts, legislatures, and other public and private domains. Jacobsohn's exploration of identity's conceptual possibilities are centered in several constitutional settings - India, Ireland, Israel, and the United States - that highlight its distinctive features.

Jacobsohn's most recent book is The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context (Princeton University Press, 2003; Oxford University Press, India, 2003). He also is the author of Apple of Gold: Constitutionalism in Israel and the United States (Princeton University Press, 1993), The Supreme Court and the Decline of Constitutional Aspiration (Rowman & Littlefield, 1986), Pragmatism, Statesmanship, and the Supreme Court (Cornell University Press, 1977), and Diversity and Citizenship: Rediscovering American Nationhood (co-edited with Susan Dunn and published by Rowman & Littlefield, 1996).

Since 2004, Jacobsohn has been Patterson-Banister Professor of Political Science and Malcolm MacDonald Professor of Constitutional and Comparative Law at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to moving to Texas, he spent more than three decades in the Political Science Department at Williams College, serving most recently there as Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government.

Jacobsohn earned a B.A. degree at City College of New York, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Cornell.

The Fiscus Lecture at Skidmore was inaugurated in 1991 by the College's Department of Government to honor the late Ronald J. Fiscus, a Skidmore faculty member from 1980 to his death in 1990. Fiscus was a constitutional law specialist and a key contributor to the development of a minor in law and society at Skidmore.