Associate Professor Lael Weis

Overview

Lael (‘Lulu’) Weis holds a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University and a JD from Stanford Law School. Her principal research interests lie at the intersection of constitutional legal theory, democratic political theory, and comparative constitutional law. She is particularly interested in methodological questions concerning the use of comparative constitutional law to analyse issues in constitutional theory. Her work in this area has examined various aspects of judicial reasoning, including how legislation is used as a source of constitutional meaning, how constitutional amendment figures in approaches to constitutional interpretation, and how courts reason about constitutional duties, such as directive principles.  A/Prof Weis’s research also encompasses topics concerning property law and theory, including the place of property in philosophical theories of justice and issues concerning the constitutionalisation of property rules.

A/Prof Weis is the founder and co-convenor of Melbourne Law School’s Legal Theory Workshop, a discussion group for works in progress in legal theory that draws guests from around Australia and overseas.  She is a General Editor for the journal Comparative Constitutional Studies and has previously served as Treasurer for the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy.