Vanderbilt University Law School

Rebecca Brown

Allen Professor of Law

Voice: (615) 322-3239
Fax: (615) 322-6631
Email: rebecca.brown@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 291B
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)

Research Interest(s)

Constitutional law; constitutional theory; individual rights; separation of powers

Education

J.D. Georgetown University
A.B. St. John's College

Biography

Rebecca Brown is one of the nation's leading constitutional theorists. She joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1988 after working in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, serving as an associate in the law firm of Onek, Klein & Farr and clerking for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Chief Judge Spottswood Robinson III, of the D.C. Circuit. Her work, which sets forth a vision of the Constitution premised on individual liberty, is widely published in leading law reviews and edited volumes. In recognition of this work, she received the inaugural Chancellor's Award for Research at Vanderbilt University in 2003. Professor Brown teaches courses in Constitutional Law and Theory.

Representative Publications

Articles

"How Constitutional Theory Found Its Soul: The Contributions of Ronald Dworkin," in Exploring Law's Empire: The Jurisprudence of Ronald Dworkin (S. Hershovitz ed., Oxford University Press, 2006)
"The Logic of Majority Rule," 9 Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 23 (2006)
"The Art of Reading Lochner," 1 New York University Journal of Law & Liberty 570 (2005)
"History for Non-Originalist," 26 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 71 (2003)
"Liberty, the New Equality," 77 New York University Law Review 1491 (2002)
"Accountability, Liberty, and the Constitution," 98 Columbia Law Review 531 (1998)
"Tradition and Insight," 103 Yale Law Journal 177 (1993). Winner of the 1993 AALS Scholarly Papers Competition.
"Separated Powers and Ordered Liberty," 139 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1513 (1991)

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