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

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

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, 2016
Excerpt: 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, 2016
Clinton 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.

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

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.

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

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