Justin Dyer
Dean | Rex W. Tillerson Chair
Justin Dyer is professor of government and the inaugural dean of UT Austin’s School of Civic Leadership. Dyer writes and teaches in the fields of American political thought, jurisprudence and constitutionalism, with an emphasis on the perennial philosophical tradition of natural law. He is the author or editor of eight books and numerous articles, essays and book reviews. His books include The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding; C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law; Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning; and Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition. He also is co-editor of the two-volume constitutional law casebook American Constitutional Law, which has been adopted at leading universities across the country. Previously, he was a professor of political science at the University of Missouri, where he served as the founding director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, a signature academic center for the study of American political thought and history. After attending the University of Oklahoma on a wrestling scholarship, he completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government at The University of Texas at Austin.
EDUCATION
BA in Political Science from University of Oklahoma
MPA in Public Administration from University of Oklahoma
MA in Government from The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. in Government from The University of Texas at Austin
General inquiries about the School of Civic Leadership: civics@utexas.edu
Scheduling: asmythe@utexas.edu
American political thought, jurisprudence, constitutionalism, natural law
Guide to the Missouri Constitution, with Greg Casey (2017)
C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law, with Micah J. Watson (2016)
Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning (2013)
Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition (2012)
American Soul: The Contested Legacy of the Declaration of Independence, edited volume (2012)
2024
“Constitutional Aspirationalism Revisited.” In Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism: The Foundations and Future of Constitutional Identity, eds. Yaniv Roznai and Ran Hirschl. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2023
“Harry Jaffa and the Idea that All Men Are Created Equal.” American Political Thought 12(2): 209-221.
2021
“Bigotry, Time, and Moral Progress.” Invited essay for a book review symposium on Linda McLain’s Who’s the Bigot? Learning from Conflicts over Marriage and Civil Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2020). In Journal of Law & Religion 36(2): 328-333.
Dyer, Justin and Erin Hawley. “Chiafalo v. Washington on Faithless Electors.” In SCOTUS 2020: Major Decisions and Developments of the US Supreme Court. Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 37-46.
2020
“Reason, Revelation, and the Law of Nature in James Wilson’s Lectures on Law.” American Political Thought 9(2): 264-284.
2018
“The Substance of Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade.” Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy 16(2): 421-432. – 2018
“James Wilson, Necessary Truths, and the Foundations of Law.” Duquesne Law Review 56(2): 49-71.
2017
Cooper, Kody W. and Justin Buckley Dyer. “Thomas Jefferson, Nature’s God, and the Theological Foundations of Natural-Rights Republicanism.” Politics & Religion 10(3): 662-688.
“Political Science and American Political Thought.” PS: Political Science and Politics 50(3): 784-788. – 2017
Dyer, Justin and Micah Watson. “The Old Western Man: C.S. Lewis on Politics and Modernity.” Modern Age 59(4): 27-35.
Congress, the Constitution, and Abortion.” New York University Journal of Law and Liberty 11(1): 394-425.
“Constitutional Confusion: Slavery, Abortion, and Substantive Constitutional Analysis.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 76(1): 33-64.
2015
“Lewis, Barth, and the Natural Law.” Journal of Church and State 57(1): 1-17.
2013
Dyer, Justin Buckley and Kevin E. Stuart. “Public Reason and the Theological Framework of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail.’” Politics and Religion 6(1): 145-163.
2010
“Slavery and the Magna Carta in the Development of Anglo-American Constitutionalism.” PS: Political Science and Politics 43(3): 479-482.
“Revisiting Dred Scott: Prudence, Providence, and the Limits of Constitutional Statesmanship.” Perspectives on Political Science 39(3): 166-74.
2009
“After the Revolution: Somerset and the Antislavery Tradition in Anglo-American Constitutional Development.” Journal of Politics 71(4): 1422-1434.
“Lincolnian Natural Right, Dred Scott, and the Jurisprudence of John McLean.” Polity 41(1): 63-85.
Spring 2025
UGS 302 Constitutional Rights
Spring 2023
GOV 357F Constitutional Structure of Power
