University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

Ronald Dworkin long ago published a book with the terrific title Taking Rights Seriously. I am selecting Robert Alexy’s A Theory of Constitutional Rights to add to the library because I can think of no other work that models as well as this one what it means to take rights seriously as a legal scholar. From first principles, Alexy develops a coherent and comprehensive account of what constitutional rights are, and how courts can best adjudicate constitutional rights claims, offering brilliant resolutions to countless scholarly debates along the way. It’s a monumental achievement and, for me, an inspiring reminder of what legal scholarship can be.