Adam Shinar

S.J.D. Candidate

Graduate Program Fellow in Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School

Teaching Fellow, Government Department, Harvard University

ashinar at sjd.law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

Conceptualizing Official Resistance: Toward a Theory of Dissent

My dissertation investigates why and how institutions and public officials (elected and non-elected) resist demands directed at them by superior officials and institutions. I provide a theoretical account of why official resistance occurs when the rule of law ordains compliance, the varying motivations resulting in this behavior, and the strategies officials and institutions deploy to effectuate their resistance. I then discuss the normative implications which flow from acts of resistance, arguing that such behavior, under particular conditions, can be beneficial. Last, I examine the theoretical and doctrinal mechanisms designed to address official resistance, arguing that certain mechanisms should be reconceptualized as seeking to accommodate this type of official behavior.

Fields of Research and Supervisors

Constitutional Law and Theory with Professor Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School, Overall Faculty Supervisor
Remedies and Institutional Design with Professor Martha Minow, Harvard Law School
Political Theory with Professor Lewis Sargentich, Harvard Law School

Additional Research Interests

Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
Moral and Political Philosophy
Comparative Constitutional Law
Local Government Law
Labor Law

Education

Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2008 - Present
Harvard Law School, LL.M, 2007
Hebrew University, LL.B, 2004
Hebrew University, Philosophy Department, 2003-2004

Academic Appointments and Fellowships

Harvard Law School, 2011, 2012, Summer Academic Fellow
Harvard University, 2012 Teaching Fellow, General Education Program
Harvard Law School, 2011, Byse Fellow
Harvard Law School, 2008-2009, Graduate Program Fellow, Constitutional Law Section Leader
Harvard University, 2008-2009, Teaching Fellow, Government Department
Harvard University, 2007-2008, Teaching Fellow, Government Department
Hebrew University, 2005-2006, Instructor in Jurisprudence

Representative Publications

Public Employee Speech and the Privatization of the First Amendment, 46 CONN. L. REV. ____ (forthcoming, 2013).
Dissenting from Within: Why and How Public Officials Resist the Law, 40 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. ___ (forthcoming, 2013).
Religious Law as Foreign Law in Constitutional Interpretation, 11 INT’L J. CONST. L. (I.CON) ___ (forthcoming, 2013) (with Anna Su).
Accidental Constitutionalism: The Political Foundations and Implications of Israeli Constitution-Making, in, THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CONSTITUTIONS (Dennis Galligan & Mila Versteeg, eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, 2012).
Between Judicial and Legislative Supremacy: A Cautious Defense of Constrained Judicial Review, 10 INT’L J. CONST. L. (I.CON) ___ (forthcoming, 2012) (with Alon Harel)
A Review of Peter Gerangelos, The Separation of Powers and Legislative Interference in Judicial Process, 2010 Public Law 434 (2010)
With a Little Help from the Courts: The Promises and Limits of Weak Form Judicial Review of Social and Economic Rights, 5 Int'l. J. L. in Context 417 (2009)
Constitutions in Crisis: A Comparative Approach to Judicial Reasoning and Separation of Powers, 20 Fla. J. Int'l. L 115 (2008)
Reflections on the Judgments Regarding Jabarin and Kahana – A Conflict Between Freedom of Speech and Incitement and Encouragement of Violent Acts, 35 Isr. L. Rev. 153 (2001)

Additional Information

Languages: English, Hebrew

Last Updated: March 19, 2013