Robert William Bennett

Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law Emeritus

Biography

A scholar in the field of constitutional law, Robert Bennett has been a member of the faculty of the Northwestern University School of Law since 1969, serving as the school’s dean from 1985 to 1995. Since 2002 he has been the Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law at Northwestern. With some regularity Professor Bennett teaches a seminar in the Law of American Democracy and courses in contracts, legislation, constitutional law, and constitutional theory. Professor Bennett has also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, the University of Southern California Law Center, Brooklyn Law School, and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University.

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Areas of Expertise

  • Legislation
  • American Democracy
  • Contracts
  • Constitutional Law

Selected Publications

  • Constitutional Originalism: A Debate (2011) (Co-authored by: Lawrence B. Solum).
  • Taming The Electoral College (2006).
  • Talking It Through: Puzzles of American Democracy (2003).
  • Current Electoral College Reform Efforts Among the States in Electoral College Reform: Challenges and Possibilities, in 187-201 (Gary Bugh ed., 2010) (Ashgate 2010).
  • Decoding the Electoral College: The History and Controversy of Selecting the President, in Voting In America: How America Votes: Law, Process, And Voter Participation, Volume 1 1-15 (Morgan E. Felchner ed., 2008).
  • Compulsion: Death as Different, in Screening Justice—the Cinema of Law: Significant Films of Law, Order, And Social Justice (Rennard Strickland, Teree E. Foster & Taunya Lovell Banks eds., 2006).

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Education

  • BA summa cum laude, Harvard University
  • LLB cum laude, Harvard University

Prior Appointments

  • Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law, 2002-2016, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Dean, 1985-1995, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Associate Professor of Law, 1971-1974, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Assistant Professor of Law, 1969-1971, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Attorney, 1968-1969, Mayer, Brown & Platt
  • OEO Reginald Heber Smith Fellow, 1967-1968, assigned to the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau
  • Legal Assistant to Hon. Nicholas Johnson, 1966-1967, Federal Communications Commission

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