Ran Hirschl

University Professor
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
David R. Cameron Distinguished Professor in Law and Politics

Biography

Ran Hirschl (Ph.D., Yale University) is the David R. Cameron Distinguished Professor in Law and Politics. He studies constitutional law and constitutional institutions and their intersection with comparative politics and society. He is the author of several major books including City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity (Oxford University Press, 2020)—winner of the 2021 Stein Rokkan Prize in Comparative Social Science Research; Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press, 2014)—winner of the 2015 American Political Science Association (APSA) Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts; Constitutional Theocracy (Harvard University Press, 2010)—winner of the 2011 Mahoney Prize in Legal Theory; and Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism (Harvard University Press, 2004), which won the 2021 Lasting Contribution Award from the American Political Science Association’s Law and Courts Section. Professor Hirschl is also the author of over 150 articles and book chapters on comparative public law, published in social science journals (e.g. Comparative Politics, Political Theory, Political Research Quarterly, Law & Social Inquiry, Journal of Political Philosophy, Constellations, Human Rights Quarterly, Revue Française de Science Politique, Annual Review of Political Science, Annual Review of Law and Social Science), law reviews (e.g. the University of Chicago Law Review, Texas Law Review, Harvard International Law Journal, American Journal of Comparative Law, and the International Journal of Constitutional Law) and in agenda-setting edited collections (e.g. The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law, The Oxford Handbook of Political Science, The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions, Constitutionalism in Context, and The Future of Economic and Social Rights).

Professor Hirschl has won academic excellence awards in five different countries; and has attracted over $7.5 million in competitive research grants, including, Canada Research Chair in Constitutionalism, Democracy and Development, Killam Research Fellowship awarded by the Canada Council of the Arts, Max Planck Fellow Group Award, and most recently a coveted Alexander von Humboldt International Research Award—the most highly-endowed research award in Germany. He is the recipient of a University of Toronto teaching award and the APSA & Pi Sigma Alpha certificate for outstanding teaching in political science. Hirschl is also co-editor of Cambridge University Press book series on comparative constitutional law and policy. He has served as co-president of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S), and held distinguished visiting professorships at Harvard, NYU, the University of Texas at Austin, and NUS, as well as fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Studies at Stanford, Princeton University, and with the Max Planck Society. Hirschl is also the editor of a Cambridge University Press book series on comparative constitutional law and policy. He has delivered dozens of named keynote lectures at conferences and universities worldwide. His work on comparative constitutional law has been translated into various languages (from French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish to Turkish, Hebrew and Mandarin), discussed in numerous scholarly fora, cited by jurists and in high court decisions worldwide, and addressed in media venues from the CBC, The New York Times and Folha de São Paulo to Le Figaro, Deutsche Welle, and the Jerusalem Post.

As of 2014, Professor Hirschl is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC). The official citation describes him as “one of the world’s leading scholars of comparative constitutional law, courts and jurisprudence.”

Research Interests

• Canadian and Comparative Legal Institutions
• Constitutional Law
• Judicial Politics

Recent News

• Ran Hirschl appointed University Professor
• Ran Hirschl named David R. Cameron Distinguished Professor in Law and Politics
• ‘Field-defining’ book by Professor Ran Hirschl wins the 2021 Stein Rokkan Prize
• APSA Law & Courts Lasting Contribution Award
• Professor Ran Hirschl’s work quoted extensively by the Supreme Court of Canada
• Best Book on Law and Courts
• The Royal Society of Canada Names Four New Fellows from the Department
• Professor Ran Hirschl Releases New Book on Comparative Constitutional Studies
• Professor Ran Hirschl Is Awarded Prestigious 2012 Killam Research Fellowship for Comparative Constitutional Scholarship
• Professor Ran Hirschl is recipient of the 2011 Dennis Leslie Mahoney Prize in Legal Theory and will deliver the Julius Stone Address in 2012

Recent Publications

• City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity
• Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism: The Foundations and Future of Constitutional Identity
• Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law
• Constitutional Theocracy