Princeton University

Specialization: Public law; constitutional theory; American political thought

Prof. Murphy chaired the Department of Politics from 1966 until 1969 and became the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence in 1968. He taught undergraduate courses in political theory, the judicial process, constitutional interpretation (American and comparative), and religion and politics. He is the author of numerous award winning scholarly books, articles, and textbooks, as well as several novels. Congress and the Court received the Merriam-Cobb-Hughes award from the American Academy of Public Affairs, and his novel The Vicar of Christ received the Award for Literature from the Chicago Foundation for Literature. Other scholarly publications include Courts, Judges, and Politics (with C. Herman Pritchett and Lee Epstein), Elements of Judicial Strategy, and several works with Joseph Tanenhaus, including The Study of Public Law, Public Opinion and Constitutional Courts, and Comparative Constitutional Law. Textbooks include American Democracy (with M. Danielson) and American Constitutional Interpretation (1st ed. With W. F. Harris and J. E. Fleming; 2d with Fleming & S. A. Barber, 3rd with Fleming, Barber, and S. Macedo). In addition to The Vicar of Christ, his other works of fiction include The Roman Enigma, and Upon This Rock.

He is currently completing a large tome entitled Constitutional Democracy. It asks such questions as: What is constitutional democracy? Why would a people want it? If they want it, how do they construct and maintain it? And having established and maintained it, what limits, if any, do the fundamental norms of constitutional democracy place on the subs tance of changes to the system?

During his tenure at Princeton, Murphy also was Jonathan Edwards Preceptor and Ford Foundation Professor. He served on the Council of the American Political Science Association and later as vice president. He received several Fulbright lectureships and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was also a visiting professor at the European University Institute in Florence and Senior Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies located at Columbia University.

Shortly before retirement, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association.

Honorary Degrees: D. Humane Letters, College of Charleston

Ph.D., University of Chicago; A.M., The George Washington University; A.B., University of Notre Dame

Link to: Personal Web site