Russell A. Miller

Courses and Research

Courses

Constitutional Law; Comparative Constitutional Law; Criminal Procedure; Introduction to U.S. Law for LL.M. Candidates; Public International Law; Transnational Law; Transnational Law Seminar – German Legal Culture

Research

On-going projects and programs in the following areas:

• Comparative Law Theory and Method
• German Law in Context
• German Constitutional Law / Comparative Constitutional Law
• German Law Journal
• The Undiscovered Jurisprudence of Justice Ginsburg

Comparative Law Theory & Method
Work advocating a critical, contextual and self-reflective approach to comparative law.  This research draws on theories of legal pluralism, Habermasian discourse theory and interdisciplinary approaches to law and legal culture.

Presentations/Programs

• “Contextualizing Comparative Constitutional Law.”  Faculty Colloquium – Faculty of Law, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, May 18, 2011.
• “Comparison Across Disciplines – Theoretical and Methodological Lessons for Comparative Law.”  Guest Lecture – University of Virginia Graduate Seminar – Comparative and Transnational Studies, Charlottesville, VA, March 16, 2011.
• “Contending Legal Traditions in German Law.”  Pre-Conference Seminar – American Translators Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO, October 27, 2010.
• “Vicki Jackson’s Comparative Law – Comments on the Book Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era (OUP 2010).” Research Presentations, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and Public International Law, Heidelberg, Germany, May 30, 2010.
• “Vicki Jackson’s Comparative Law – Comments on the Book Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era (OUP 2010).”  Fourth Workshop on Comparative Constitutional Methodology – University of Vienna Law Faculty, Vienna, Austria, May 9, 2010.
• “Charting a New ‘Contextual’ Course in American Comparative Law Education.”  Garcia-Pelayo Fellowship Program Research Seminar, Center for Political and Constitutional Studies, Madrid, Spain, April 27, 2010.
• “Charting a New ‘Contextual’ Course in American Comparative Law Education.”  Max Planck Debating Series, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and Public International Law, Heidelberg, Germany, December 15, 2009. 

Publications

• Work in Progress – Comparison Across Disciplines
• Work in Progress – Context in Comparative Constitutional Law
• Work in Progress – Germany’s Plural Legal Culture
• Global Legal Traditions:  Comparative Law in the 21^st Century (with Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Michael J. Bazyler and Peter K. Yu) (forthcoming 2012), Lexis/Nexis (New York).
• The German Law Journal as “Lived” Comparative Law, 10 German Law Journal 1309 (2009).

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German Law in Context
Annual, student/faculty interdisciplinary research project that explores a discrete theme in German law and legal culture.  This research makes use of German film, literature and history as a way of casting critical light on German law and legal institutions.

• The Image of the Immigrant in German Law & Culture(2011)

  An interdisciplinary examination of the legal status of foreigners in post-war Germany.  Seminar discussions focused on German constitutional law, administrative law, anti-discrimination law and select German Federal Constitutional Court decisions (Mehmet Deportation Case; Muslim Ritual Slaughter Case; Headscarf Case).  Special events included:

  • Guest Lecture:  “The History and Sociology of Immigration in Post-War Germany”
    Stefan Muechler, Doctoral Candidate, University of Bonn
  •  Film Screening: Fatih Akin’s “The Edge of Heaven” (2007)
  • Guest Lecture:  “The Image of the Immigrant in German Film”
    Professor Laura Heins, University of Virginia, Department of Germanic Language and Literature
  • Guest Lecture:  “The Image of the Immigrant in German Literature”
    Professor Venkat Mani, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of German
  • Guest Lecture:  “Litigating for Integration in Germany”
    Dr. Rainer Nickel, Guest Professor, Carlos III University, Madrid
  • Film Screening:Yasemin Samdereli’s & Nesrin Samdereli’s “Almanya – Welcome to Germany” (2011)
• From Post-War Rubble to Sozialstaat (2010) [GLJ Special Issue]

  An interdisciplinary and originalist examination of Germany’s constitutional commitment to social welfare.  Seminar discussions focused on German constitutional law (Hartz IV Case) and the German social welfare regime.  Special events included:

  • Guest Lecture:  “Introduction to Germany’s Constitutional Sozialstaat”
    Prof. Dr. Frank Schorkopf, Law Faculty – Georg-August-University, Göttingen
  • Film Screening: Roberto Rossellini's “Germany Year Zero” (1948)
  • Guest Lecture:  “Introduction to Germany's Trümmerzeit”
    Giles MacDonough, Journalist and Historian
  • Film Screening: Max Färberböck’s “A Woman in Berlin” (2008)
  • Film Screening: Edgar Reitz’s “Heimat - Episode 8: The American” (1985)
  • Film Screening: Gerhard Lamprecht’s “Somewhere in Berlin” (1946)
  • Guest Lecture:  “‘Socialism Is Our Christian Duty!’ The Influence of Left-Wing Catholicism on the Drafting of the Basic Law”
    Professor Bill Patch, Kennan Professor of History, Washington and Lee University
  • Guest Lecture:  “The Trümmerzeit in Literature – Heinrich Böll's Das Brot der Frühen Jahre (1957)”
    Professor Roger Crockett, Chair, Department of German/Russian Languages - Washington and Lee University
  • Guest Lecture: “The German Sozialstaat and the Founding Period”
    Christian Bommarius, Author/Journalist
• Germany’s 1968 and the Law (2008) [GLJ Special Issue]

  Interdisciplinary examination of the role the law played in Germany’s 1968 student revolution and the impact the 1968 student revolution had on German law.  Seminar discussions focused on German constitutional law (University Reform Case).  Special events included:

  • Guest Lecture:  “Notes from the Ground:  Reminiscences of a Reluctant 68er”
    Professor Roger Crockett, Chair, Department of German/Russian Languages - Washington and Lee University
  • Guest Lecture:  “‘We Are Not Going to Defend Ourselves Before Such a Justice System!’ – 1968 and the Courts”
    Dr. Martin Klimke, Research Fellow, German Historical Institute
  • Film Screening: Uli Edel’s, “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (2008)
• The Laws of Others:  German Reunification in Law and Film (2007) [GLJ Article]

  Interdisciplinary examination of the role the law played in German reunification.  Seminar discussions focused on German Federal Constitutional Court cases (Land Reform I Case; EALG Case; Land Reform III Case; Key Date Case; Wall Shootings Case; Public Servant Dissolution Case; Fink Case; East German Disbarment Case).  Special events included:

  • Film Screening: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s “The Lives of Others” (2006)

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German Constitutional Law & Comparative Constitutional Law
Professor Miller is among the leading English-language commentators on German constitutional law.  He has a particular interest in structural issues, including federalism, democratic institutions, separation of powers, and national security. This work frequently involves comparative glances at American constitutional law.

Presentations/Programs

• “Literature as Dignity.”  Symposium – Transatlantic Perspectives on Human Dignity, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, November 16-17, 2011.
• “The Euro Crisis – The German Constitutional Court’s Euro Rescue Package Case.”  Washington & Lee School of Law Panel, Lexington, VA, September 12, 2011.
• “Security by Another Name?  Constitutional Differences in U.S. and German National Security Policy and Jurisprudence.”  University of Leipzig Fulbright Lecture Series, Leipzig, Germany, July 1, 2010.
• “Balancing Security and Liberty in Germany.”  Section on Comparative Law – Panel, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 8, 2010.
• “The German Constitutional Court’s ‘Eastern Sympathies’ in Reunification Cases.”  25^th Anniversary Symposium – Robert Bosch Stiftung/Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association, Washington, DC, June 20, 2009.
• “The Basic Law and the Use of Force – Remarks on the 60^th Anniversary of the Bonner Grundgesetz.”  American Institute for Contemporary German Studies – Program Celebrating the 60^th Anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany:  Its Founding Pillars Today, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, May 18, 2009.
• “Germany’s Militant Democracy and the War on Terror.”  Indiana University Bloomington – Maurer School of Law, April 9, 2009.
• “German Reunification and Decommissioning Communist Legacy.”  Gonzaga Journal of International Law Symposium – Legal Issues in Post-Communist Countries, Spokane, Washington, March 20, 2009.
• “A Survey of German Federalism.”  Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting – Panel on Comparative Federalism, Palm Beach, Florida, July 30, 2008.
• “Germany’s Militant Democracy and the War on Terror.”  Duke University School of Law – Global Law Workshop.  Durham, North Carolina, February 29, 2008.
• “A Shared Constitutionalism:  Stem Cells and the Case for Transatlanticism.”  The Stem Cell Debate in the U.S. and Germany, Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, October 4-5, 2004.
• “Lords of Democracy:  Judicial Politics and Visions of Democracy in the United States and Germany.”  Transatlantic Studies Conference, University of Dundee West Park Conference Center, Dundee, Scotland, July 8-11, 2002.
• “Lords of Democracy:  Judicial Politics and Visions of Democracy in Germany, the U.S. and the E.U.”  Fifth Workshop on New Scholarship in International Public and Private Law, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, May 18-19, 2002.

Publications

• Work in Progress – The Image of the Immigrant in German Law and Culture
• The Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany (with Donald Kommers) – Third Edition (forthcoming 2012), Duke University Press (Durham, N.C./London).
• Balancing Security and Liberty in Germany, 4 Journal of National Security Law & Policy 369 (2010).
• Germany’s Basic Law and the Use of Force, 17 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 197 (2010).
• Das Bundesverfassungsgericht:  Procedure, Practice and Policy of the German Federal Constitutional Court (with Donald P. Kommers), 3 Journal of Comparative Law 194 (2009).
• Comparative Law and Germany’s Militant Democracy, in US National Security, Intelligence and Democracy:  The Legacy of the Church Committee 229 (Russell Miller ed., 2008).
• A Bridge Over Troubled Water?  Review of Ralf Rogowski and Thomas Gawron (eds.), Constitutional Courts in Comparison:  The U.S. Supreme Court and the German Federal Constitutional Court, 2 International Journal of Constitutional Law 568 (2004).

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German Law Journal

Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of monthly, English-language law journal publishing in the fields of German law, European law and international law. Responsibilities extend across the whole spectrum of the project and include, inter alia, content selection and editing, organization of special issues and symposia, management of an international Board of Peer-Review Editors, supervision of staff of Student Editors, fund raising, and maintenance of the Journal’s business affairs.

Presentations/Programs

• “Adventures in German Legal Translation.”  German Section Session – American Translators Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO, October 28, 2010.
• “The German Law Journal as ‘Lived’ Comparative Law.”  Transnationalizing Legal Culture:  A 10^th Anniversary Festakt and Symposium of the German Law Journal, Federal Ministry of Justice/Free University, Berlin, Germany, July 2-3, 2009.

Publications

• Comparative Law as Transnational Law:  A Decade of the German Law Journal (with Peer C. Zumbansen) (2011), Oxford University Press (Oxford/New York).
• The German Law Journal as “Lived” Comparative Law, 10 German Law Journal 1309 (2009).
• The Day the Earth Stood Still?  Reading Jürgen Habermas’ Essay “February 15” Against Ian McEwan’s Novel Saturday, 10 German Law Journal 81 (2009).
• Memorial:  David Currie and German Constitutional Law, 9 German Law Journal 2080 (2008).
• Constitutional Court Upholds Lifetime Partnership Act, (with Dr. Volker Roeben) 3 German Law Journal No. 8 (1 August 2002).
• Dodging the Draft: Federal Constitutional Court Evades Review of Germany’s Military Service Law, 3 German Law Journal No. 5 (1 May 2002).
• Consitutional Standards, Working Time and Pharmacy Opening Hours: The FCC's Message to Managers and Law Makers, 3 German Law Journal No. 3 (1 March 2002).
• The Constitutional Court's "Traditional Slaughter" Decision: The Muslims' Freedom of Faith and Germany's Freedom of Conscience, 3 German Law Journal No. 2 (1 February 2002).
• Domesticating International Criminal Law: Germany's Proposed Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (International Law Criminal Code), 2 German Law Journal No. 10 (15 June 2001).

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The Undiscovered Jurisprudence of Justice Ginsburg
Close, critical examination of Justice Ginsburg’s jurisprudence involving fields other than her intensely scrutinized work concerning gender equality.  This work aims to develop a full understanding of Justice Ginsburg’s remarkable career and very often suggests that she is a far-more centrist jurist than her critics suggest.

Justice Ginsburg’s Federalism

Presentations/Programs

• “In a Dissenting Voice:  Justice Ginsburg’s Federalism.”  New England Law Review Symposium – The Legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Boston, Massachusetts, March 12, 2009.
• “The Undiscovered Justice:  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and President Clinton’s ‘New Democratic’ Centrism.”  Hofstra University Cultural Center, 11th Presidential Conference – William Jefferson Clinton – The ‘New Democrat’ From Hope.  Hempstead, New York, November 10-12, 2005.

Publications

• Clinton, Ginsburg and Centrist Federalism, 85 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL 225 (2010).
• In a Dissenting Voice:  Justice Ginsburg’s Federalism, 43 NEW ENGLAND LAW REVIEW 771 (2009).
• Justice Ginsburg’s Centrist Role [op-ed], THE ROANOKE TIMES (April 1, 2009).

Justice Ginsburg’s Comparative Law

Presentations/Programs

• “Justice Ginsburg’s Comparative Law and the VMI Case.”  Washington & Lee School of Law Panel – Exploring the Origins of Gender Integration at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA, November 1, 2010.

Publications

• Work in Progress – Justice Ginsburg’s Comparative Law

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