Miguel Schor

Biography

As a child, Miguel Schor immigrated with his parents to the United States from Argentina to escape the nation’s political turmoil during the 1960s. He became a naturalized citizen when he turned 18.

“Part of the oath of citizenship I took was to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Schor says. “I never thought that one day I would be teaching and writing about the Constitution.”

Schor is a professor at Drake University Law School and an expert in constitutional law and comparative constitutionalism. He teaches Constitutional Law I and II, The First Amendment, and advanced Constitutional Law courses.

Schor’s path to constitutional law came from a unique source: Latin American studies. Drawing from his own experiences, Schor pursued a master’s degree, focusing on comparative studies of Latin American constitutions. He notes that while the region adopted many ideas from the U.S. Constitution, it experienced vastly different political outcomes.

That research sparked his interest in constitutional law. After earning his law degree, Schor clerked for two years, spent a year as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago School of Law, and then practiced law in New Orleans. He was a professor at Suffolk University in Boston before joining the Drake Law faculty full-time in 2012.

During his career, Schor has presented and published numerous articles on topics including the debate between originalism and the living constitution; constitutional dialogue and judicial supremacy; and comparative judicial review. His research focuses on problems of constitutional design.

Areas of Expertise

Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Comparative Constitutionalism, Constitutional Design, Latin American Studies

Education

• JD, Tulane University
• MA, Tulane University
• BA, Tulane University

Selected Publications

• American Constitutional Exceptionalism and Democratic Erosion, in Gary Jacobson and Miguel Schor, eds., Comparative Constitutional Theory 2d edition (Edward Elgar Pub. 2025).
• American Constitutional Exceptionalism, Constitutional Identity, and American Democracy, in Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism: Essays on Constitutional Identity in Honor of Gary Jacobsohn (Ran Hirschl and Yaniv Roznai, eds., (Cambridge University Press, 2024).
• Trumpism and the Continuing Challenges to Three Political-Constitutionalist Orthodoxies, 7 Constitutional Studies 93 (2021).
• Constitutional Democracy and Scholarly Fashions, 68 Drake Law Review 359 (2020).
• Comparative Constitutional Theory (Gary Jacobsohn and Miguel Schor eds., Edward Elgar Press, 2018).
• Introduction: The Comparative Turn in Constitutional Theory, in Comparative Constitutional Theory (2018) (co-authored with Professor Gary Jacobsohn).
• Constitutional Dialogue and Judicial Supremacy, in Comparative Constitutional Theory (2018). Translated into Romanian for “The Romanian Judges’ Forum Review."
• The Once and Future Democracy: Argentina at the Bar of Constitutionalism, in The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions (Denis Galligan and Mila Versteeg eds., Cambridge University Press, 2013).
• The Strange Cases of Marbury and Lochner in the Constitutional Imagination, 87 Texas Law Review 1463 (2009).

Significant Accomplishments

• Named the inaugural Class of 1977 Distinguished Scholar, Drake University Law School, 2024
• Leland Forrest Outstanding Professor, Drake University Law School, 2024
• Presenter: Trumpism and the Continuing Challenges to Three Political-Constitutionalist Orthodoxies (American Society of Constitutional Law, Oct. 16, 2020).
• Presenter: Democracy and Scholarly Fashions (Democracy and Dysfunction Conference, Drake University Law School, Des Moines, IA, Sept. 21, 2019).
• Presenter: The Trump Presidency (The Future of Liberal Democracy, University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX, Feb. 21-23, 2019).
• Presenter: The Federalist as a Primer on Constitutional Design (University of Missouri School of Law, Columbia, MO, Dec. 1, 2017).
• Presenter: What, if anything, can/should be learned from Publius by foreign readers in the 21st century? (Conference on Sanford Levinson, An Argument Open to All: Federalist in the 21st Century, University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX, Jan. 23, 2016).