Gordon Silverstein
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Phone: (510) 642-4683
Office Location: 730 Barrows
Office Hours: W 10-12 & by appt
Fall 2008 Course: PS157A Constitutional Law of the United States,
PS252 Legal Theory and Institutions
The author of Imbalance of Powers: Constitutional Interpretation and the Making of American Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 1997) Gordon Silverstein’s new book, Law’s Allure: How Law Shapes, Constrains, Saves and Kills Politics will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2008.
In addition to his work in American constitutional law, foreign policy and American political thought, he is now engaged in research on comparative constitutionalism and the rule of law. Together with Malcolm M. Feeley, Robert A. Kagan and Martin Shapiro, he is organizing an international, cross-disciplinary Sawyer Seminar series sponsored by a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation on the “The Dilemmas of Judicial Power: Courts, Politics and Society" to be held at Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society in 2007-2008. His work on comparative constitutionalism is reflected in a book chapter, “Singapore: The Exception that Proves Rules Matter” that will appear in Rule By Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, edited by Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Previously, he published an article titled "Globalization and the Rule of Law: 'A Machine that Runs of Itself?' " in ICON: The International Journal of Constitutional Law. Another article, “Sequencing the DNA of Comparative Constitutionalism: A Thought Experiment” appeared in the Maryland Law Review in 2006. This work is part of a larger research agenda aimed at developing a cross-institutional theory of precedent and a comparative study of the forces that drive different nations to adopt and accept judicial review.
Other publications include a chapter on The Warren Court and Congress in Harry Schieber (editor), Earl Warren and the Warren Court (2007), and “Constitutional Contortion? Making Unfettered War Powers Compatible with Limited Government” in Constitutional Commentary, and “Statutory Interpretation and the Balance of Institutional Power in The Review of Politics.” His writing also has appeared in The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, the American Prospect and The Los Angeles Times.
Following his undergraduate education at Cornell University where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the financially and editorially independent Cornell Daily Sun, Silverstein worked as a journalist for The Wall Street Journal in New York and Hong Kong and The San Francisco Chronicle before going to Harvard University where he earned his PhD. Before moving to Berkeley, Silverstein held faculty positions in political science, law and administrative science at Rice University, Dartmouth College, the University of Minnesota and Lewis & Clark College. In addition, he served as a Program Director for the non-profit, non-partisan New America Foundation in Washington DC.
At Berkeley, Silverstein teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in public and constitutional law, civil liberties, comparative constitutionalism and the separation of powers among others.