Five Questions with Professor Tom Ginsburg
1.Tell us about your summer travels this year.
As soon as classes ended I had to run off to Lisbon for a conference I co-organized on Liberal Constitutions and Financial Crises. Eric Posner joined us and I’m now working on editing the book. Then I came back but soon had to run off for a series of lectures in Myanmar for International IDEA. The lectures were to the Constitutional Court and members of parliament. I also attended conferences in Berkeley, Copenhagen, the Hague, Hong Kong, and Mexico City in June and July. In August I visited Bogota, Colombia to give lectures at the Constitutional Court and Externado University, and then in September I went to Tuvalu, which is discussing constitutional reform. It sounds exhausting but I find it energizing and fun, and use the plane rides to write.
2. Favorite city/country/region to visit? Why?
Tough question. I used to live in Thailand and Japan and enjoy going back to those places. Life in Northern Italy is pretty great. I now want to learn more about Polynesian civilization, and have a couple places on the bucket list in the South Pacific.
3. What is one of your favorite courses to teach at the Law School, and why?
I love teaching Comparative Legal Institutions, which is a 1L elective and always draws diverse students. It is a transhistorical look at legal systems, including imperial China, classical Islam, Rome and our own system. I also love the Greenberg seminars.
4. When you’re not traveling, what are some activities you enjoy doing in Chicago?
Hearing music! Green Mill and Hyde Park’s own Promontory are frequent spots I go.
5. What makes the Law School such a special place?
The intellectual culture is what drew me here and keeps me here. It’s a privilege to teach our students and work with my colleagues. I can’t believe they pay me actual American money to do this.