James A Gardner
Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice,
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs
and Director of the Jaeckle Center for Law and Democracy
B.A., Yale University, 1980
J.D., University of Chicago, 1984
University at Buffalo Law School
The State University of New York
514 O'Brian
Hall, North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
Phone:(716) 645-3607
Assistant:
Susan Martin, 622 O'Brian Hall, Phone: (716) 645-2080
Timothy Conti, 319 O'Brian Hall, Phone: (716) 645-2052
Biography:
Jim Gardner received his B.A. from Yale in 1980 and his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1984. From 1984 to 1988, he practiced law in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C. Before joining the University at Buffalo faculty in 2001, he taught law at Western New England College, William and Mary, and the University of Connecticut. His 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.
Selected Publications:
Books
What are Campaigns For? The Role of Persuasion in Electoral Law Politics (Oxford University Press, 2009) [SSRN]
Legal Argument: The Structure and Language of Effective Advocacy (LexisNexis, 2nd edition, 2007) [SSRN]
Interpreting State Constitutions: A Jurisprudence of Function in a Federal System (University of Chicago Press, 2005) [SSRN]
Articles
The Dignity of Voters – A Dissent, University of Miami Law Review vol. 64 (forthcoming 2010)
In Search of Sub-National Constitutionalism, European Constitutional Law Review vol. 4 (2):325-343 (2008) [SSRN]
Deliberation or Tabulation? The Self-Undermining Constitutional Architecture of Election Campaigns, Buffalo Law Review vol. 54: 1413-1482 (2007) [SSRN]
New York's Judicial Selection Process is Fine – It's the Party System That Needs Fixing, New York State Bar Journal vol. 79(7): 42-46 (September 2007) [SSRN]
What is "Fair" Partisan Representation and How Can It Be Constitutionalized? The Case for Fixed Election Districts, Marquette Law Review vol. 90: 555-592 (2007) [SSRN]
Representation without Party: Lessons from State Constitutional Attempts to Control Gerrymandering, Rutgers Law Journal vol. 37: 881-970 (2006) (2005 State Constitutional Lecture, Rutgers-Camden Center for State Constitutional Studies) [SSRN]
Wandering Lonely as a Cloud: National Citizenship and the Case for Non-Territorial Election Districts, Election Law Journal vol. 5: 210-222 (2006)
Democracy Without a Net? Separation of Powers and the Idea of Self-Sustaining Constitutional Constraints on Undemocratic Behavior, St. John's Law Review vol. 79: 293-317 (2005) [SSRN]
Giving the Gift of Public Office, Buffalo Law Review vol. 53: 859- 882 (2005) [SSRN]
The New Frontier of State Constitutional Law (with Jim Rossi) William & Mary Law Review vol. 46: 1231-1243 (2005) (Symposium foreword) [SSRN]
Whose Constitution Is It? Why Federalism and Constitutional Positivism Don't Mix, William & Mary Law Review vol. 46: 1245-1271 (2005) [SSRN]
A Post-Vieth Strategy for Litigating Partisan Gerrymandering Claims, Election Law Journal vol. 3: 643-652 (2004)
Structuring the Political Process under American State Constitutions, Rutgers Center for State Constitutional Studies; and Federalismi.it, (2004)
Coherence or Bust: Telling Tales about Election Law, Connecticut Law Review vol. 36: 1-5 (2003) (Reply to articles by Burt Neuborne, Jeremy Paul, Nathaniel Persily, and Richard Pildes)
Forcing States to Be Free: The Emerging Constitutional Guarantee of Radical Democracy, Connecticut Law Review vol. 35: 1467-1507 (2003) (Featured commentary for annual commentary issue, with responses by Burt Neuborne, Jeremy Paul, Nathaniel Persily, and Richard Pildes)
State Constitutional Rights as Resistance to National Power: Toward a Functional Theory of State Constitutions, Georgetown Law Review vol. 91: 1003-1064 (2003) [SSRN]
State Courts as Agents of Federalism: Power and Interpretation in State Constitutional Law, William & Mary Law Review vol. 44: 1725-1800 (2003) [SSRN]
One-Person, One-Vote and the Possibility of Political Community, North Carolina Law Review vol. 80: 1237-1267 (2002)
Chapters
Voting and Elections, State Constitutions for the 21st Century: the Agenda of State Constitutional Reform (G.A. Tarr & R.F. Williams, editors) (SUNY Press, 2006)
Power, Autonomy, and Politics under Local Government Charters in the United States, Local Government Charters: European and American Regulations (W. Kisiel et al., editors) (Zakamycze, 2005)
Reviews
Law and Politics Book Review vol. 17(7): 620-623 (July 2007) (reviewing Christopher F. Zurn, Deliberative Democracy and the Institutions of Judicial Review (2007))
