The conviction upon which this Institute is founded is that twentieth century America faces a deep moral crisis, which manifests itself in a variety of social pathologies, to which public policy seems unable to respond effectively. We believe that the impotence of public policy regarding many of these problems is connected with a loss of understanding of the principles of the Constitution and, broadly, of the original "American public philosophy". This loss of understanding is most clearly seen in the more or less conscious choice of the most influential intellectuals in America (and those whose views they affect substantially, such as the media elite) to reject the political theory on which the United States was founded. In particular, they reject the more classical and Christian elements, especially from the "natural law" tradition, broadly conceived, of the original American public philosophy, which served to "leaven" its more modern or liberal elements.

The public philosophy on which this nation was founded aimed at limited but effective government--effective not only in providing essential services, but also in helping to maintain the moral integrity of the culture and supporting the institutions (e.g., families and churches) which bear the primary responsibility for the inculcation of virtue, an essential condition for a healthy community. One element of this public philosophy was a principle which is sometimes called subsidiarity, which manifested itself in the American constitutional scheme primarily in the doctrine of federalism. A strong national government was intended to guarantee national security and a free national economy, unencumbered by interstate economic conflict. States and local governments were to retain the primary responsibility for administering ordinary civil and criminal law, providing welfare services, and maintaining the moral framework of social life. Over time, this framework of government successfully met challenges, including the elimination of slavery, the integration of countless immigrants into our national life, an expanding national economic life, and the emergence of the nation as an international power. The moderate liberalism of America's public philosophy served the country well for many years of expanding freedom, decency, and prosperity.

American public philosophy has, at least since the 1960s, however, faced a significant challenge, from a competing set of ideas that claims (wrongly, we believe) to be rooted in the Constitution and our national life. Contemporary liberalism, in theory and practice, has more and more retreated from recognizing the obligation of the nation to protect "the moral ecology" and the "mediating" institutions on which it primarily depends. In the name of an illusory "neutrality" on questions of the human good, it has undermined the family, by denying its special status in law and by displacing it in its social welfare programs, and it has driven religion out of an expanding public sphere, denying in principle the legitimacy and wisdom of acknowledging God's place in our public philosophy--a place universally acknowledged by those who founded our nation. In its emphasis on personal autonomy, contemporary liberalism has fostered ever-expanding forms of rights and entitlements, while ignoring or downplaying the moral ideals and duties which give meaning and reasonable limits to those rights. Far from representing our national ideals, this philosophy is antithetical to them.

These changes gravely endanger the well-being, and perhaps even the simple preservation, of the regime. For us, then, the effort to understand and defend the principles of the American republic is crucial as a precondition for re-establishing them once more as the foundation of our national life.

At the same time, this project is not simply a "restorationist" one. Articulating a public philosophy is an on-going task. We do not pretend that the public philosophy on which the United States was founded was completely adequate. Both its intrinsic limitations or defects and the changes of circumstances in the last two centuries may require creative efforts to reformulate that original public philosophy, to improve it and render it adequate to the exigencies of our own time. But that reformulation will have important points in common with the original American philosophy, above all, its purpose of drawing on the broad natural law tradition to provide the best possible vision of civic purposes for our modern pluralist community.

One could legitimately say that this is no "mere academic task". It will require statesmen capable of translating the essential elements of a renewed American public philosophy into terms that the American people can understand and will want to embrace. At the same time, since a restoration of those principles requires that they be "re-discovered", defended, corrected at times, and applied to modern circumstances, it is also fair to say that academic study and exposition are crucial elements of the project of restoring the American republic. The Institute hopes to make an important contribution to that intellectual task.

The Institute undertakes to support a variety of activities which will foster a better understanding of American public philosophy, and especially of those elements of it which draw on the natural law. It proposes especially to sponsor conferences on subjects at the intersection of legal philosophy, natural law theory, American political thought, and contemporary liberal theory. From the interchange of opinion which is thereby fostered, the Institute hopes to contribute to a deeper understanding of the principles of the American constitutional order and to an elevation of political discourse in American life.
 
 

The first conference sponsored by the APPI was held October 26-28, 1990 in Newark NJ on the topic of "Liberalism in Crisis: Contemporary Liberal Political Theory." Ten of the scholars who made up the core group of the APPI (Michael Pakaluk, Christopher Wolfe, John Hittinger, Terry Hall, Russell Hittinger, David Wagner, Gerard Bradley, Dwight Duncan, Robert George, and Brian Benestad) gave papers on various liberal theorists and their critics: Rawls, Dworkin, Richards, Sandel, Unger, MacIntyre, Rorty, Stout, Raz, and Galston. The papers were published as Liberalism at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Contemporary Liberal Political Theory and Its Critics (Rowman and Littlefield).

The second APPI conference was held in Princeton NJ on November 22-24, 1991, on the topic "Problems of Contemporary Liberalism." Building on the theoretical landscape of liberalism mapped out in the first conference, this conference moved on to analyze some of the key points on which current liberal theory faces serious challenges. Papers included: "Romantic Liberalism: The Role of Individuality in Liberal Political Theory" (Michael Pakaluk), "Locke: Divine Workmanship or Radical Autonomy as the Foundation for Liberal Rights" (John Hittinger), "Liberal Iusnaturalism: The Rights of Unlimited Selves" (Russell Hittinger), "Liberalism and Paternalism: A Critique of Ronald Dworkin" (Christopher Wolfe), and "Shaping Public Morality in a Liberal Regime" (Brian Benestad). Besides an expanded core group, a number of journalists and graduate students were in attendance as well.

The APPI co-sponsored a conference in Washington, D.C. in February, 1992 on "Abortion and Legislating in the Light of Moral Principle". Papers were presented by Gerard Bradley and Robert George on "Abortion and the Constitution" and by Christopher Wolfe on "Abortion and Morally Acceptable Political Compromise". (The latter was published in the journal First Things in June/July 1992).

September 17-19, 1993 was the date and Washington, D.C. the place for our conference on "Liberalism, Modernity, and Natural Law". Conference topics included the place of natural law in the American founding and constitutional law, whether there are theological presuppositions to natural law theory, whether natural law theory and egalitarian liberalism are compatible with limited government, modern challenges to natural law, and liberalism and autonomy.

We moved beyond the core group of the APPI for the first time, employing what will be a frequent format for our future activities: serious discussion among outstanding scholars who represent various positions across the theoretical and political spectrum. Papers were given by Thomas Pangle, Randy Barnett, Walter Berns, Russell Hittinger, Michael Moore, John Finnis, Michael Zuckert, Lloyd Weinreb, William Sullivan, Joseph Raz, and Michael Sandel. Respondents included Frank Michelman, Christopher Wolfe, Stephen Macedo, Jeffrey Reiman, Daniel Robinson, and Sanford Levinson. A book based on the conference papers, Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality, was published by Oxford University Press in 1996.

The APPI co-sponsored a conference at Princeton University in September, 1995 on the Thought of Germain Grisez. The conference included papers exploring various aspects of the theological and philosophical work of Grisez, especially his work in contemporary natural law theory. Authors included William May, Benedict Ashley, Edward Vacek, Kevin Flannery, Ralph McInerney, Patrick Lee, Gerard Bradley, and John Finnis, with a response by Germain Grisez and Joseph Boyle.

In April, 1996 the APPI co-sponsored a conference on "Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy", which explored issues such as judicial review and interpretation, use of military force, federalism, religious liberty, tort reform, labor, privacy, property, education, and welfare. The papers make up a book published by Georgetown University Press as Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy.

A conference on "The Family, Civil Society, and the State" was held in Washington, D.C. in June, 1996. Topics of discussion at this conference included how the contemporary state of the family is distinctive; the role of women today and its impact on the family; the tendency of the state to undermine and displace the family, and the role of the knowledge class in rationalizing such activity; and whether or in what ways public policy can have a significant impact in protecting the family. Rowman and Littlefield will publish a book based on the conference papers, The Family, Civil Society, and the State, in August, 1998.

In June of 1997 the APPI sponsored a conference on "Homosexuality and American Public Life" at the Georgetown University Conference Center, which was attended by about 350 people. Speakers at this conference included Drs. George Rekers, Jeffrey Satinover, and Joseph Nicolosi, as well as Robert George, Patrick Fagan, Anthony Falzarano, Richard Neuhaus, Maggie Gallagher, Michael Medved, Hadley Arkes and William Kristol, speaking on topics such as the scientific data on homosexuality, the possibility of reversing a homosexual orientations, the morality of homosexual acts, and what should be the appropriate public stance on homosexuality. Homosexuality and American Public Life will be published by Spence Publishing Company in January, 1999, and a second volume, Homosexuality and American Public Policy, is planned as well.

The APPI also has co-sponsored a series of conferences in conjunction with the Biolchini Chair of Jurisprudence at Notre Dame Law School.  These have included "Secularism and the Common Good" (1996), "The Nature and Scope of the Common Good" (1997), "The Nature and Scope of Religious Liberty" (1998), and on "Natural Law and Slavery" (2000). 

At the 1997 APSA meeting in Washington, the APPI sponsored a well-attended panel on Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason, (with John Finnis, Jeffrey Reiman, Stephen Macedo, and Christopher Wolfe).  At the 1998 APSA meeting in Boston, there was a follow-up panel on the same topic (with Paul Weithman and Patrick Neal). Georgetown University Press published a book based on these panel papers, entitled Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason.  At subsequent APSA annual meetings, the APPI has sponsored panels on "Contemporary Natural Law Interpretations" (1999), "Was the Historians’ Brief on Abortion a Falsification of History?" and "Public Morality Today" (2000), and "Who Speaks For Liberalism?" (2001).

The APPI has also co-sponsored several colloquia with the Liberty Fund.  The first was a conference on "Parental Rights in Education", in Milwaukee, September 10-13, 1998. A group of 16 scholars discussed selections on the topic from Plato and Aristotle, through Aquinas, Bodin, Hobbes, Locke, and Spencer, down through some contemporary writers (Ackerman, Blustein, and Ross).  Another conference co-sponsored with the Liberty Fund, held in Irving, Texas in February, 2000, dealt with "Natural Law, Moral Independence, and Civil Liberties."  Through readings from scholars such as Robert P. George and David A. J. Richards, and Supreme Court opinions, the colloquium examined the question of whether rights are most secure if they are understood as being rooted in natural law (with its understanding of positive human goods) or rooted in conceptions of moral independence which may reflect a certain scepticism regarding reliable knowledge about human ends.

On October 1-2, 1998, the APPI held a major public conference in Washington, D.C. on "Reining in Judicial Imperialism: Limiting the Judiciary to Its Constitutional Powers". The conference analyzed the current claims about the role of the Supreme Court in American politics (especially the Court¡¯s own claims in Planned Parenthood v. Casey), noting the extraordinary breadth of such claims. It then surveyed a variety of practical ways in which the role of the Court can be confined to its proper place in the American separation of powers.

In December, 2002 the APPI will co-sponsor a conference on "Democracy and Leadership," with the James Madison Program of Princeton University and the International Foundation for Human Sciences.   It is one of the most important purposes of leadership and statesmanship to foster, to the extent possible, civic friendship within nations and between nations, a task made more difficult in a modern world that is characterized by a deep pluralism of comprehensive philosophical and theological views, as well as divisions (within and between countries) arising from nationalism, race, religion, and history.  The conference will investigate how it might be possible to bridge these gaps in order to establish a substantive moral community  as the basis for political life and international relations, without infringing on legitimate rights of persons and groups.  In what ways do our democratic political processes (formal and informal) serve as a means or as an obstacle to the selection of leaders who have the capacity to provide such leadership?  What (if anything) can be done, realistically, to revise our political arrangements in ways that would secure such leadership more effectively?

The goal of these activities is to show that a public philosophy grounded in natural law principles offers a more adequate basis for American political discourse and public policy than contemporary liberalism. Indeed, we believe that natural law theory, broadly conceived, offers the only adequate foundation for a society at once committed to rational freedom and capable of explaining the foundations and reasonable limitations of that freedom. Exploring natural law principles, investigating ways in which they may be applied, and fostering intellectual exchanges with representatives of liberal and post-modern political theory are some of the means by which we seek to achieve our goal.

Publications

Activities of the APPI have resulted in the following publications:

Liberalism at the Crossroads eds. Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994)

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality ed. Robert P. George (Clarendon Press, 1996)

The Family, Civil Society, and the State ed. Christopher Wolfe (Rowman and Littlefield, 1997)

Homosexuality and American Public Life ed. Christopher Wolfe (Spence Publishing Co., 1999)

Same-Sex Matters: The Challenge of Homosexuality ed. Christopher Wolfe (Spence Publishing Co., 2000)

Natural Law and Public Reason eds. Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (Georgetown University Press, 2000)