The James Wilson Foundation on Natural Rights and the American Founding

JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes writes on the passing of one of his dearest friends, JWI Senior Scholar Michael Uhlmann. We come to our friends today with heart-breaking news, on the death of our beloved Michael Uhlmann yesterday in California. In my own case, I’ve lost one of my dearest, closest friends, and the […]

In his latest column for The Catholic Thing, JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes takes note of the curious way in which the commentators in the media have backed into a perspective of natural law in their uniform response to the COVID-19 virus. They take as a governing axiom, at every turn, the paramount importance […]

Josh Craddock, a 2019 James Wilson fellow and newly named Affiliated Scholar, works as a full-time associate for Latham & Watkins, LLP.  In the past, he worked as a summer associate at Latham & Watkins and at Bancroft PLLC, and clerked for Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. […]

First Liberty Institute and the James Wilson Institute are proud to announce that they will be co-sponsoring the James Wilson Fellowship in Washington, D.C., in August 2020. As the James Wilson Fellowship enters its seventh year, we believe this collaboration will strengthen the programs of both institutes. Fifteen highly accomplished young lawyers and law students […]

In a piece for The Catholic Thing, Prof. Hadley Arkes, JWI Founder and Director, explains the logic and the history of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, of which he was one of the original architects. The Act has been an ongoing project of Prof. Arkes’s since 1988. Prof. Arkes explains how an earlier form […]

In his latest column for The Catholic Thing, JWI Founder and Director Hadley Arkes addresses what he sees as a modern misunderstanding of the meaning of liberty in our law and civil society. Arkes claims that failing to use our ability to reason about the correct and incorrect uses of our liberty leads us into […]

The James Wilson Institute had the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion on the life and work of Senior Fellow Michael Uhlmann on the evening of Tuesday, February 18. Some notable quotes in remembrance of Uhlmann from the night are below. Justice Thomas: “But Mike Uhlmann was the first to broach that idea, and to […]

In January 2020, The James Wilson Institute and National Review Institute co-hosted Richard Brookhiser, senior fellow of the National Review Institute, to discuss his recent book, Give Me Liberty, a recounting of the history of American liberty as told through the lens of thirteen key documents in American history. He presented a more inspiring story of American nationalism […]

In his latest piece, JWI founder and director Hadley Arkes responds to an op-ed in Public Discourse, called “Loose Talk on Free Speech,” in which Iowa Law Professor Robert T. Miller defends classical liberalism’s permissive record on freedom of speech. Miller argues against a claim by First Things senior editor Matthew Schmitz that classical liberalism […]

In the wake of JWI Senior Scholar Michael Uhlmann’s passing in October 2019, Hudson Institute Distinguished Fellow, Christopher DeMuth singles out the pivotal role that Ulhmann, then a 30-year-old Senate staffer, played in stopping a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College. In “The Man Who Saved the Electoral College,” published in National Affairs, DeMuth […]

Earlier in January 2020, Professor Hadley Arkes, JWI Founder and Director, appeared on the podcast “Life, Liberty and Law” to discuss the relationships between culture, politics, and law. Is culture downstream of politics and law or are politics and law downstream of culture? Or perhaps all three influence one another persistently? In the podcast, Arkes […]