Richard Albert is the Hines H. Baker and Thelma Kelley Baker Chair in Law, Professor of Government, and Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes about constitutional reform, including amendment, replacement, and revolution. He approaches the subject from comparative, doctrinal, historical and theoretical perspectives. His publications — many of them available here — have been translated into Chinese, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. He has held visiting professorships at Yale University in the United States, the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa in Canada, FGV Direito SP in Brazil, Externado University in Colombia, Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo in Ecuador, Université Paris Panthéon-Assas in France, Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai in India, Airlangga University in Indonesia, and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.
Books
He is the author of Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions, a monograph published by Oxford University Press in August 2019. This book has been has been translated into Spanish as Reformas constitucionales
Elaborar, romper y cambiar constituciones (Universidad de La Sabana).
His major ideas on constitutional amendment have been published in Indonesian as Paradigma Baru Amendemen Konstitusi (Setara Press 2023), Persian as عنوان: اصلاح ناپذیری قانون اساسی در نظریه و عمل (Majd Publishing 2023), and Spanish as Reforma y Desmembramiento Constitucional (Universidad Externado 2021) and in Formas y función de la enmienda constitucional (Universidad Externado 2017).
He has edited several volumes on the study of constitutionalism, including 2023 Global Review of Constitutional Law (IFFC 2024), 2023 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2024), Cities and the Constitution (McGill-Queen's 2024), The Past, Present, and Future of Canadian Cities (McGill-Queen's 2024), 2022 Global Review of Constitutional Law (EUT 2023), 2022 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2023), A Written Constitution for Quebec? (McGill-Queen's 2023), The Architecture of Constitutional Amendments (Hart 2023), The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums (Oxford University Press 2022), Amending America's Unwritten Constitution (Cambridge University Press 2022), 2021 Global Review of Constitutional Law (EUT 2021), and 2021 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2022), 2020 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2021), 2020 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2021), The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Constitutions (Oxford University Press 2020), Constitutionalism Under Extreme Conditions: Law, Emergency, Exception (Springer 2020), Revolutionary Constitutionalism: Law, Legitimacy, Power (Hart 2020), 2019 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2020), The Canadian Constitution in Transition (University of Toronto Press 2019), 2018 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough 2019), Quasi-Constitutionality and Constitutional Statutes: Forms, Functions and Applications (Routledge 2019), Constitutional Change and Transformation in Latin America (Hart 2019), Constitutional Reform of National Legislatures ( Edward Elgar 2019), Founding Moments in Constitutionalism (Hart 2019), An Unamendable Constitution? Unamendability in Constitutional Democracies (Springer 2018), The Law and Legitimacy of Imposed Constitutions (Routledge 2018), 2017 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2018), The Foundations and Traditions of Constitutional Amendment (Hart 2017), Canada in the World: Comparative Perspectives on the Canadian Constitution (Cambridge University Press 2018), 2016 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2017) and Cambio Constitucional Informal (Universidad Externado de Colombia 2016).
He is also a co-author of Canadian Constitutional Law (Emond 2022), a leading textbook in Canadian public law now in its sixth edition.
Editorial Leadership
He is co-editor of the new Series in Comparative Constitutionalism at Oxford University Press, the new Series at Hart on Studies in Latin American and Caribbean Constitutionalisms, and co-editor of the Series in Comparative Constitutional Change at Routledge. He sits on the editorial boards of several journals including the International Journal of Constitutional Law, Revista de Investigações Constitucionais, Africa Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law, Romanian Journal of Comparative Law, Rivista of diritti comparati, Indian Constitutional Law Review, Legal Desire International Journal on Law and the International Journal of Comparative Legal Research.
Since 2014, he is Book Reviews Editor for the American Journal of Comparative Law. He is also founding co-editor of I-CONnect, the scholarly research blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law.
Conference Organization
Professor Albert has organized over 100 international conferences, workshops, and symposia on subjects in public law, many of them for the benefit of early-career scholars in comparative law. As founder of the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, he created the Global Summit in Constitutionalism, whose first edition featured 100+ panels, 400+ speakers, and 4000+ attendees. And as Chair of the Younger Comparativists Committee in the American Society of Comparative Law from 2011-15, he transformed the organization from a committee into a global network of scholars in public and private comparative law. He created the annual YCC Global Conference in Comparative Law. As Chair, he developed scholarship, teaching and mentorship programs to support early-career scholars. He also created scholarship and teaching prizes to recognize early-career scholars in comparative law. In recognition of his service as Chair, the Richard Albert Scholarship Fund was endowed to support early-career scholars participating in the annual YCC Global Conference.
Organizational Leadership
Richard Albert is the former Co-President of the International Society of Public Law. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, an appointed member of the Governing Council of the International Society of Public Law, and he has served on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law. He is presently chair of the Section on Law & South Asian Studies in the Association of American Law Schools, and formerly Chair of the Section on Scholarship and the Section of Comparative Law. He is or has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Sections on Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, Law and South Asian Studies, and Scholarship in the Association of American Law Schools.
Awards and Honors
He has won the Hessel Yntema Prize, awarded by the American Society of Comparative Law for "the most outstanding article" on comparative law by a scholar under 40. In 2018, he was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Leadership Award by the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. He has twice won the Anthony P. Farley Award for Excellence in Teaching and he has been recognized as one of the top 50 under 50 Minority Law Professors in the United States.
He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Brescia in Italy. He is a Fellow at the Center for Jurisprudence and Constitutional Studies at Kabarak University in Kenya and a Distinguished Academic Associate at the Centre for Law & Religion at Cardiff Law School. He served as Senior Fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College until 2022.
Consulting
Professor Albert has advised governments, political parties, and international organizations on matters involving constitutional law, democratic reform, and integrity in governance.
Previous Positions
Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin, Richard Albert was a litigator at the international law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, a tenured Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, and a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Books
He is the author of Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions, a monograph published by Oxford University Press in August 2019. This book has been has been translated into Spanish as Reformas constitucionales
Elaborar, romper y cambiar constituciones (Universidad de La Sabana).
His major ideas on constitutional amendment have been published in Indonesian as Paradigma Baru Amendemen Konstitusi (Setara Press 2023), Persian as عنوان: اصلاح ناپذیری قانون اساسی در نظریه و عمل (Majd Publishing 2023), and Spanish as Reforma y Desmembramiento Constitucional (Universidad Externado 2021) and in Formas y función de la enmienda constitucional (Universidad Externado 2017).
He has edited several volumes on the study of constitutionalism, including 2023 Global Review of Constitutional Law (IFFC 2024), 2023 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2024), Cities and the Constitution (McGill-Queen's 2024), The Past, Present, and Future of Canadian Cities (McGill-Queen's 2024), 2022 Global Review of Constitutional Law (EUT 2023), 2022 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2023), A Written Constitution for Quebec? (McGill-Queen's 2023), The Architecture of Constitutional Amendments (Hart 2023), The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums (Oxford University Press 2022), Amending America's Unwritten Constitution (Cambridge University Press 2022), 2021 Global Review of Constitutional Law (EUT 2021), and 2021 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2022), 2020 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2021), 2020 International Review of Constitutional Reform (IFFC 2021), The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Constitutions (Oxford University Press 2020), Constitutionalism Under Extreme Conditions: Law, Emergency, Exception (Springer 2020), Revolutionary Constitutionalism: Law, Legitimacy, Power (Hart 2020), 2019 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2020), The Canadian Constitution in Transition (University of Toronto Press 2019), 2018 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough 2019), Quasi-Constitutionality and Constitutional Statutes: Forms, Functions and Applications (Routledge 2019), Constitutional Change and Transformation in Latin America (Hart 2019), Constitutional Reform of National Legislatures ( Edward Elgar 2019), Founding Moments in Constitutionalism (Hart 2019), An Unamendable Constitution? Unamendability in Constitutional Democracies (Springer 2018), The Law and Legitimacy of Imposed Constitutions (Routledge 2018), 2017 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2018), The Foundations and Traditions of Constitutional Amendment (Hart 2017), Canada in the World: Comparative Perspectives on the Canadian Constitution (Cambridge University Press 2018), 2016 Global Review of Constitutional Law (Clough Center 2017) and Cambio Constitucional Informal (Universidad Externado de Colombia 2016).
He is also a co-author of Canadian Constitutional Law (Emond 2022), a leading textbook in Canadian public law now in its sixth edition.
Editorial Leadership
He is co-editor of the new Series in Comparative Constitutionalism at Oxford University Press, the new Series at Hart on Studies in Latin American and Caribbean Constitutionalisms, and co-editor of the Series in Comparative Constitutional Change at Routledge. He sits on the editorial boards of several journals including the International Journal of Constitutional Law, Revista de Investigações Constitucionais, Africa Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law, Romanian Journal of Comparative Law, Rivista of diritti comparati, Indian Constitutional Law Review, Legal Desire International Journal on Law and the International Journal of Comparative Legal Research.
Since 2014, he is Book Reviews Editor for the American Journal of Comparative Law. He is also founding co-editor of I-CONnect, the scholarly research blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law.
Conference Organization
Professor Albert has organized over 100 international conferences, workshops, and symposia on subjects in public law, many of them for the benefit of early-career scholars in comparative law. As founder of the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, he created the Global Summit in Constitutionalism, whose first edition featured 100+ panels, 400+ speakers, and 4000+ attendees. And as Chair of the Younger Comparativists Committee in the American Society of Comparative Law from 2011-15, he transformed the organization from a committee into a global network of scholars in public and private comparative law. He created the annual YCC Global Conference in Comparative Law. As Chair, he developed scholarship, teaching and mentorship programs to support early-career scholars. He also created scholarship and teaching prizes to recognize early-career scholars in comparative law. In recognition of his service as Chair, the Richard Albert Scholarship Fund was endowed to support early-career scholars participating in the annual YCC Global Conference.
Organizational Leadership
Richard Albert is the former Co-President of the International Society of Public Law. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, an appointed member of the Governing Council of the International Society of Public Law, and he has served on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law. He is presently chair of the Section on Law & South Asian Studies in the Association of American Law Schools, and formerly Chair of the Section on Scholarship and the Section of Comparative Law. He is or has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Sections on Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, Law and South Asian Studies, and Scholarship in the Association of American Law Schools.
Awards and Honors
He has won the Hessel Yntema Prize, awarded by the American Society of Comparative Law for "the most outstanding article" on comparative law by a scholar under 40. In 2018, he was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Leadership Award by the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. He has twice won the Anthony P. Farley Award for Excellence in Teaching and he has been recognized as one of the top 50 under 50 Minority Law Professors in the United States.
He has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Brescia in Italy. He is a Fellow at the Center for Jurisprudence and Constitutional Studies at Kabarak University in Kenya and a Distinguished Academic Associate at the Centre for Law & Religion at Cardiff Law School. He served as Senior Fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College until 2022.
Consulting
Professor Albert has advised governments, political parties, and international organizations on matters involving constitutional law, democratic reform, and integrity in governance.
Previous Positions
Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin, Richard Albert was a litigator at the international law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, a tenured Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, and a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.