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Gardner receives Fulbright award
James A. Gardner, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the UB Law School, will be spending the fall 2012 semester at McGill University in Montreal on a Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant.
Gardner will conduct research on “Intergovernmental Contestation in Federal Systems” as the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in the Theory and Practice of Constitutionalism and Federalism at McGill.
The project, which builds on his previous work in federalism and subnational constitutionalism, has two components, Gardner says.
“The first examines the tools and methods of intergovernmental contestation and will involve field research into the ways in which Canadian provinces attempt to influence policymaking by the national government and to protect their interests when they disagree with national policy,” he explains.
“The second component focuses on the conditions for effective contestation of national power by subnational units, such as states and provinces. This portion of the project will examine the influence of national political parties in setting the political agenda of subnational units,” he says.
“My hypothesis,” Gardner adds, “is that national parties tend to induce a convergence in the agendas and substantive positions of national and subnational units, thereby undermining the kind of subnational autonomy that most theories of federalism seem to demand.”
Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice in the UB Law School, Gardner’s research interests include the theoretical foundations of the constitutional structure of politics, the institutionalization through law of principles of democracy, constitutional structures of federalism and subnational constitutional law.
He is a frequent commentator in both state and national media on constitutionalism and elections law.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School, and a former Department of Justice civil attorney, Gardner joined the UB Law faculty in 2001 and currently serves as vice dean for academic affairs.
His most recent books include “What Are Campaigns For?The Role of Persuasion in Electoral Law Politics” (Oxford University Press, 2009) and, with a co-author, “New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms” (Oxford University Press, 2010).
He also serves as director of the Law School’s Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy.
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