Event

Event Overview

Join Prof. Mark Tushnet for a discussion of two issues at the cutting-edge of constitutional theory and practice: animal protection and water management.

Jessica Eisen will discuss the emergence of constitutional provisions committing the state to protect the interests of animals. Such provisions now exist in India, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Slovenia, Austria, Luxembourg, and Egypt. This presentation will offer background on the rise of these provisions, and explore questions about the relationship between these provisions and prevailing theories of constitutionalism.

Erum Sattar will discuss the relationship between constitutional federal arrangements and the law and politics of water management in the Indus Basin. This talk will explore the legal and institutional regime of managing water as a resource for development with a specific focus on the environmental effects of using water for irrigated agriculture. Sattar will also discuss the process of moving from a colonial era legal regime to one based on water markets as envisaged by the World Bank.

Professor Mark Tushnet, who will serve as moderator and discussant, is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Both panelists, Jessica Eisen and Erum Sattar, are candidates for Harvard Law School’s highest degree, the Doctorate in Juridical Sciences (SJD).

This event is sponsored by the Harvard SJD Association, the Harvard Animal Law and Policy Program, the Harvard Food Law Society, the Harvard Environmental Law Society, and HLS SALDF.