Natural Law, Natural Rights, and the American Constitution

FAIN: EZ-50094-05

Witherspoon Institute (Princeton, NJ 08540)
Bradford P. Wilson (Project Director: April 2005 to November 2006)

A series of workshops for faculty and visiting fellows at Seton Hall University, Villanova University, and Princeton University on the natural law foundations of the American constitution.

The Witherspoon Institute proposes to organize a series of university faculty workshops on “The Natural Law Foundations of the American Constitution” for faculty members involved in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, the Core Humanities Program at Villanova University, and Seton Hall University. The goal is to provide faculty members with a forum in which they can explore natural law thinking in depth, including the critical role it played in the foundation of the American republic’s Founding debate. Participants will be challenged to think about new ways in which traditional and contemporary natural law theory bolsters and illuminates modern democratic theory.