Books
Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why It Matters
– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2014.Description from the Publisher: This book defends the conjugal view of marriage. Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that marriage is a distinctive type of community: the union of a man and a woman who have committed to sharing their lives on every level… More
A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics
– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political center to win the 2008 election (only to disappoint months after his… More
Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism
– ISI Books, 2013.Description from Publisher: “Many in elite circles yield to the temptation to believe that anyone who disagrees with them is a bigot or a religious fundamentalist. Reason and science, they confidently believe, are on their side. With this book, I aim to… More
Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis
– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical reasoning and moral choosing that addresses the great questions of the… More
What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense
– With Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson. Encounter Books, 2012.Description from the Publisher: Until yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partnership: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends the reasons for this historic consensus and shows why redefining civil… More
Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics
– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2008.Description from Publisher: This book treats the question of what a human person is and the ethical and political controversies of abortion, hedonism and drug-taking, euthanasia, and sex ethics. It defends the position that human beings are both body and… More
Embryo: A Defense of Human Life
– With Christopher Tollefsen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Reprinted by The Witherspoon Institute, 2011.Description from Publisher: The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that faith-based views have no place in public policy. Religious… More
The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market and Morals
– With Jean Bethke Elshtain, eds. Spence Publishing, 2006.Description from Publisher: The movement for same-sex marriage has triggered an unprecedented crisis in the social norms and laws governing marriage. All great civilizations have sought to unite, in the institution of marriage, the goods of sexual intimacy,… More
The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis
– Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2002.Description from Publisher: It is a common supposition among many of our cultural elites that a constitutional “wall of separation” between church and state precludes religious believers from bringing their beliefs to bear on public matters. This… More
Constitutional Politics: Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change
– With Sotirios A. Barber, eds. Princeton University Press, 2001.Description from Publisher: What does it mean to have a constitution? Scholars and students associated with Walter Murphy at Princeton University have long asked this question in their exploration of constitutional politics and judicial behavior. These… More
Essays
On Peter Simpson on “Illiberal Liberalism”
– The American Journal of Jurisprudence, Volume 62, Issue 1, 1 June 2017, pp. 103–110.Abstract: Is “liberalism,” as the term is used by leading contemporary self-described liberals such as the late John Rawls and the late Ronald Dworkin, and as put into practice by the contemporary left in western democratic nations, inherently illiberal?… More
Vetting the Executive Order
– Robert George and Angela Wu Howard. First Things, February 2, 2017.Excerpt: Robert P. George: Angela Wu Howard is a leading international human rights lawyer and activist with whom I have worked in defense of religious liberty. I admire her and hold her in the highest esteem. I had been planning to write an analysis of… More
Why I Wanted to Debate Peter Singer
– Wall Street Journal, Dec 18, 2016.Excerpt: If you are a student at a college or university, you are there to learn—from the faculty, from the speakers who visit campus, and from each other. It is a precious opportunity. Making the most of these years requires cultivating and practicing… More
Gnostic Liberalism
– First Things, December, 2016Excerpt: The idea that human beings are non-bodily persons inhabiting non-personal bodies never quite goes away. Although the mainstreams of Christianity and Judaism long ago rejected it, what is sometimes described as “body-self dualism” is back with a… More
Non-Catholics for Church ‘Reform’
– The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2016Clinton allies mock the faithful and demand they embrace secular dogmas. Excerpt: Arthur Schlesinger Sr. said that anti-Catholicism is “the deepest bias in the history of the American people.” I don’t know if that’s true anymore, as I don’t run into… More
Five Pillars of a Decent and Dynamic Society
– In James R. Stoner, Jr. and Harold James (eds.), The Thriving Society: On The Social Conditions of Human Flourishing (The Witherspoon Institute, 2015). First presented as the keynote address at John Paul II Australian Leaders Forum, Sydney, August 2012; Lecture in the Loyola University’s Centennial Celebration, March 2013; Keynote address at Sutherland Institute's 2013 Annual Dinner, April 2013; Lecture at Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture, September 2013.Natural Law and the Unity and Truth of Sexual Ethics: A Reply to Gary Gutting
– Public Discourse, March 17, 2015, with John Finnis.Gary Gutting is a Notre Dame philosophy professor who thinks that what counts about arguments is whether they “work.” And so his complaint against natural-law arguments for Catholic teachings about sex is that they “no longer work (if they ever did)”.… More
The State of International Religious Freedom and Why It Matters
– Orbis 59:1 (Winter 2015).Abstract: One of America’s—more precisely, one of Philadelphia’s—greatest contributions to the world is freedom of conscience, the idea that people should be free to practice their religion—or not to practice at all. Today, as ISIS gives… More
Russia’s Extremism Law Violates Human Rights
– The Moscow Times, November 26, 2014, with Katrina Lantos Swett.Last Friday, a video deemed offensive to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was ruled “extremist” by a city court in Vladimir. While Alexander Soldatov — chief editor of Credo.ru, the website that posted… More
The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris
– Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:5 (2014), with Patrick Lee and Christopher Tollefsen.Abstract: In various places we have defended the position that a new human organism, that is, an individual member of the human species, comes to be at fertilization, the union of the spermatozoon and the oocyte. This individual organism, during the ordinary… More
Multimedia
Candidate Conversations 2016 with Robert George – Mike Huckabee
– Interview with 2016 U.S. GOP Presidential candidate, Former Governor Mike Huckabee, EWTN News, December 6, 2015, YouTube.Candidate Conversations 2016 with Robert George – Ted Cruz
– Interview with 2016 U.S. GOP Presidential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, EWTN News, November 29, 2015, YouTube.The Constitution and Morality
– Eighth Annual Rosenkranz Debate at Federalist Society’s 2015 National Lawyers Convention, with John O. McGinnis, moderated by Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., introduced by Eugene B. Meyer, Washington DC, November 14, 2015, YouTube.Testimony of USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George on “Human Rights in Egypt”
– Testimony before the Human Rights Commission, Washington DC, November 3, 2015, YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqlM39BiUpw
A Global Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis
– Opening remarks in a conversation with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, moderated by Eric P. Schwartz, National Press Club, October 27, 2015, YouTube.Testimony of USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George on “The Crisis of International Religious Freedom”
– Testimony at a hearing hosted by the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Washington DC, October 27, 2015, YouTube.A Conversation About Christianity & Politics
– Tocqueville Lecture at Furman University, with Cornel R. West, October 22, 2015, YouTube.C-SPAN Appearances
– C-SPAN.Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.
Reporting on Religious Persecution: A Global Challenge
– Panel discussion at the Newseum Institute, with panelists Katrina Lantos Swett, Libby Liu, Asia Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Former U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, and Tom Gjelten, September 21, 2015, YouTube.Journalists and activist organizations reporting on the persecution of religious minorities around the world face challenges and dangers. This panel discussion features journalists and human rights groups who will discuss the worldwide threats to religious… More
Why We’re Losing Liberty
– Prager University online course, published September 7, 2015, YouTube.Was the Constitution written in a way that was designed to protect freedom and limit the government’s size? Has it been effective in doing that? And what’s the Supreme Court’s record when it comes to protecting our rights? Robert George,… More
Teaching
Honorary and Endowed Visiting Fellowships, Professorships, and Major Lectures
Frank Irvine Lecture in Jurisprudence, Cornell University, 2010 Sir Malcolm Knox Lecture in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews, 2008 Judge Guido Calabresi Lecture, Yale University, 2008 John Dewey Lecture in Philosophy of Law, Harvard University, 2007 Hall… More
Courses, Graduate Seminars, and Tutorials Taught
Harvard Law School Philosophy of Law; Philosophy of Civil Liberties; Law and Virtue Princeton University Philosophy of Law; Constitutional Interpretation; Civil Liberties; American Law and Theory; Alternate Means of Dispute Resolution; Natural Law and the… More
Academic Positions
Harvard University Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School, 2012–2013; Fall, 2013; Fall, 2014 Princeton University McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, 1999– Director, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, 2000– Professor,… More