Daryl Levinson

And it's not true that they don't exist. It's just true that they're different. different from our sort of paradigm case of law, but similar to each other. And they've confronted a common set of problems that have led people over the centuries to be skeptical of how they're going to work themselves out.

And it's not true that they don't exist. It's just true that they're different. different from our sort of paradigm case of law, but similar to each other. And they've confronted a common set of problems that have led people over the centuries to be skeptical of how they're going to work themselves out.

But they have managed to work themselves out, at least to a considerable extent, and in many of the same kinds of ways.

But they have managed to work themselves out, at least to a considerable extent, and in many of the same kinds of ways.

So the point of the book is that constitutional law and international law wherever you put them on the scale of real or fake, are kind of solving the same set of instrumental and moral problems in a similar set of ways. And those ways are different than the ways that contract law solves the same set of instrumental and moral problems.

So the point of the book is that constitutional law and international law wherever you put them on the scale of real or fake, are kind of solving the same set of instrumental and moral problems in a similar set of ways. And those ways are different than the ways that contract law solves the same set of instrumental and moral problems.

But they're not necessarily worse in some deep jurisprudential sense that makes this type of law fake and contract law real. I don't know if there are people at Chicago who have the view that contract law also is fake because it's just politics all the way down. And Morty Horowitz taught us this is where strict liability comes from.

But they're not necessarily worse in some deep jurisprudential sense that makes this type of law fake and contract law real. I don't know if there are people at Chicago who have the view that contract law also is fake because it's just politics all the way down. And Morty Horowitz taught us this is where strict liability comes from.

And yeah, there are courts, but why does anyone pay attention to the courts anyhow? That's just power standing behind the judges. And whose power is it? Probably corporations or something. Do they think that way?

And yeah, there are courts, but why does anyone pay attention to the courts anyhow? That's just power standing behind the judges. And whose power is it? Probably corporations or something. Do they think that way?

Yeah, I think constitutional law is like that too, right? Like this is Dan's point. Like we do have a Congress with a House and a Senate and two senators per state and a president who's elected more or less like the constitutional text says and all the other stuff. And it seems like people are kind of getting in their own cars. And the more interesting question might be why.

Yeah, I think constitutional law is like that too, right? Like this is Dan's point. Like we do have a Congress with a House and a Senate and two senators per state and a president who's elected more or less like the constitutional text says and all the other stuff. And it seems like people are kind of getting in their own cars. And the more interesting question might be why.

Right. So I'm wary of talking about guns for fear of ending up in another Supreme Court opinion. But that's right. Like one kind of obvious thing that international and constitutional law have in common is that they raise the question of why people with guns are willing to obey people without guns or why people with more guns are willing to obey people with fewer guns.

Right. So I'm wary of talking about guns for fear of ending up in another Supreme Court opinion. But that's right. Like one kind of obvious thing that international and constitutional law have in common is that they raise the question of why people with guns are willing to obey people without guns or why people with more guns are willing to obey people with fewer guns.

And this is something that internationalists do worry about. And the realists say they don't, and it's just whoever has the most guns wins.

And this is something that internationalists do worry about. And the realists say they don't, and it's just whoever has the most guns wins.

But lots of internationalists and international lawyers see ways in which states manage to shape each other's behavior and create incentives for different kinds of law-compliant behavior, even without a super Leviathan standing there with the ultimate weaponry.

But lots of internationalists and international lawyers see ways in which states manage to shape each other's behavior and create incentives for different kinds of law-compliant behavior, even without a super Leviathan standing there with the ultimate weaponry.

And the same thing in constitutional law, where, as you know, from the beginning of American constitutionalism, our framers worried about parchment barriers and would the constitution create anything that would be strong enough to stand in the way of the people with guns and money and other forms of power. And We seem to have, at least to some extent, succeeded in doing that.

And the same thing in constitutional law, where, as you know, from the beginning of American constitutionalism, our framers worried about parchment barriers and would the constitution create anything that would be strong enough to stand in the way of the people with guns and money and other forms of power. And We seem to have, at least to some extent, succeeded in doing that.