NDLR Symposium | "The Constitution of Practice" | Events | Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government

On behalf of the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government (CCCG), the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT), and the Notre Dame Law Review (NDLR), we are pleased to announce a symposium on October 30, 2026, on Professor Marc O. DeGirolami’s book, The Constitution of Practice (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, July 14, 2026). The symposium will be hosted at Notre Dame Law School.

For several years, Professor DeGirolami has been the leading scholar in the nation on an approach to constitutional adjudication he terms “traditionalism.” In a series of articles, Professor DeGirolami has systematically defined traditionalism, explained what makes it distinctive from other historical methodologies (such as originalism), offered normative justifications for traditionalism, and demonstrated the pervasive influence of tradition in constitutional adjudication across the rights and structure domains. The Constitution of Practice is not a repackaging of Professor DeGirolami's prior work; it is a from-scratch, new presentation of his methodology that provides a more extensive normative justification, responds at greater length to counterarguments, and links traditionalism with the broader politico-theoretical concept of tradition. To mark the publication of this important book, our three organizations are coming together to host this symposium.

Schedule:

Panel I | 10:00 AM

Panel II | 12:30 PM

Panel III | 2:15 PM

Traditionalism & The Nature of Law

Panel I | 10:00 AM

Mitchell Berman serves as the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute of Law and Philosophy. He writes and teaches in American constitutional law and theory, philosophy of criminal law, general jurisprudence, and philosophy of sport. His contributions to these diverse fields include a novel nonoriginalist theory of American constitutional interpretation, a new positivist account of legal content, and an original retributivist justification for criminal punishment.

Berman’s many articles and book chapters on these and other topics have appeared, or are forthcoming, in the leading peer-reviewed journals in his fields, including Ethics, Noûs, Philosophy & Phenomenological Research, Legal Theory, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Law & Philosophy, Criminal Law & Philosophy, and Journal of Philosophy of Sport; in prominent student-edited law reviews including University of Pennsylvania Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Michigan Law Review, California Law Review, Texas Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Virginia Law Review, NYU Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and Georgetown Law Journal; and in edited volumes published by Oxford, Cambridge, and Routledge.

Sherif Girgis joined the Notre Dame Law faculty in 2021 after practicing appellate litigation at Jones Day and clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and D.C. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith. His constitutional law scholarship appears in top journals—including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and NYU—and he has co-authored two books on marriage and religious liberty, along with editing two major casebooks. A 2025 member of the American Academy of Sciences & Letters and a 2026 visiting professor at Harvard Law, his work is frequently cited by judges and major media. Girgis holds a Ph.D. and B.A. from Princeton, a master’s from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from Yale.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Stephanie Barclay is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and the Faculty Co-Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Her work examines the relationship between constitutional rights and democratic governance, with particular emphasis on religious liberty, free speech, and the protection of minority communities. Barclay‘s work is published or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the Chicago Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, Harvard Law Review, the Journal of Law and Religion (Cambridge Univ. Press), the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Washington University Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum. Her forthcoming book, Constitutional Rights in a Democracy, is under contract with Oxford University Press. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Bloomberg BNA, The Hill, and Law 360. And her work has also been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prior to joining Georgetown, Barclay was twice voted Professor of the Year. Barclay has also litigated constitutional cases at both the trial and appellate level, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. Barclay served as a law clerk to Judge N. Randy Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barclay is a Faculty Affiliate at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School; and she is a Nootbaar Fellow at the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics at Pepperdine University. She currently serves as the Chair for the AALS Law and Religion Section and as a Member of the Executive Committee for the AALS Constitutional Law Section. She graduated summa cum laude from BYU Law School, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. She is completing a Ph.D. in Law at Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar and a Tang Scholar

Fr. Christopher Justin Brophy, O.P. is Senior Vice President of Mission and Ministry, Director of the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies, and Associate Professor of Politics at Providence College. He earned his degree in Political Theory and Constitutional Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2020. His research and teaching revolves around Classical Political Thought, especially Plato, Contemporary Political Thought, Philosophy of Education, and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Fr. Justin is also an active preacher, having delivered various public talks and retreats.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

José Joel Alicea is the inaugural St. Robert Bellarmine Professor of Law, Co-Associate Dean for Faculty Research, and Director of the Law School’s Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Duke Law School and Notre Dame Law School. Prior to joining the Catholic Law faculty, Professor Alicea practiced law for several years at the law firm of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, where he specialized in constitutional litigation. He previously served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., on the United States Supreme Court and for Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Alicea’s scholarship has focused on constitutional theory. His scholarship has appeared, or is forthcoming, in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. He has also been active in public debates about constitutional law, testifying before Congress and publishing essays in places like The New York Times, City Journal, and National Affairs.

Professor Alicea is a Fellow at the Columbus School of Law's Center for Religious Liberty and a Nonresident Fellow at The American Enterprise Institute. He is the recipient of several research and teaching awards, including the student-selected Professor of the Year teaching award, and the national Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.

Traditionalism & History

Panel II | 12:30 PM

Adam J. MacLeod is Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and Matthew Hale Faculty Fellow at CUA's Center for Law and the Human Person. He is the author of Property and Practical Reason (Cambridge University Press 2015) and three other books, dozens of law review articles, and more than one hundred essays, book reviews, and op-eds.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Lael Weinberger is an assistant professor of law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School. Previously, Lael clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch on the United States Supreme Court, Judge Frank Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice Daniel Eismann on the Idaho Supreme Court. Lael also practiced law at the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson Dunn and held fellowships at Stanford and Harvard law schools. Lael earned a law degree and a Ph.D. in history, both from the University of Chicago. Lael's academic work has appeared in journals such as the University of Chicago Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and Constitutional Commentary, among others. He has also written widely for broader public audiences, with his writings and reviews appearing in publications including Newsweek, National Review, Claremont Review, First Things, Christianity Today, LA Review of Books, World, and the New Rambler Review.

Haley Proctor is an Associate Professor at Notre Dame Law School, where she researches and teaches about procedure, evidence, conflicts, and the administrative state. She is a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. She was previously a partner at Cooper & Kirk PLLC, where she remains of counsel, and a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Thomas B. Griffith.‎ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Kevin C. Walsh is Knights of Columbus Professor of Law and the Catholic Tradition at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. Professor Walsh clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the University of Notre Dame, and Dartmouth College.

Traditionalism & Change

Panel III | 2:15 PM

Darrell A. H. Miller is the Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. A scholar of civil rights, constitutional law, and legal history, his work has been cited by several courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. With Joseph Blocher, he is author of The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Miller is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Oxford University (where he studied as a Marshall Scholar) and Anderson University.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Charles L. Barzun is the William Minor Lile Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Director of the Joint-Degree J.D./M.A. Program in Legal History. He has taught at UVA since 2008, and his scholarship, which has been published in the Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, and Virginia Law Review, explores the intersections of legal philosophy, history, and constitutional theory. He received his A.B. from Harvard and his J.D./M.A. from Virginia, clerked on the Second Circuit, and was a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School before joining the faculty.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

David K. O’Connor is a faculty member in the departments of Philosophy and of Classics at the University of Notre Dame. His teaching and writing focus on ancient philosophy, aesthetics, ethics and politics, and philosophy of religion. Dr. O’Connor is an acclaimed teacher and lecturer. His online lectures on love and sexuality have reached a wide international audience, and are the basis of his two recent books, Love is Barefoot Philosophy (in Chinese translation, 2014) and Plato’s Bedroom: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Love(2015). He has also published extensively on the relation between philosophy, art, and literature, in both the ancient and the modern world.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Jeffrey Pojanowski is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. He has written on administrative law, constitutional and statutory interpretation, general jurisprudence, and the philosophy of private law. His current research focuses on interpretive theory. He serves as the co-editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence. Pojanowski received his undergraduate education at Princeton University and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. He clerked for then-Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court of the United States. He had an administrative law and appellate litigation practice at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington DC before joining the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 2010.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ