Edward Samuel Corwin Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Edward S. Corwin (1878–1963) was a leading political scientist and constitutional law scholar during the first half of the twentieth century. He was widely recognized for his writings on a broad range of constitutional issues. Corwin also made significant contributions to the study of the U.S. Supreme Court and the presidency. Corwin’s work has been referred to in U.S. Supreme Court opinions and continues to be cited in current academic scholarship.

Corwin completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan in 1900, where he developed an interest in American constitutional thought. After spending two years teaching high school students, Corwin enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania and received his doctorate in early American history in 1905.

Corwin spent his entire academic career at Princeton. In 1911, at the age of thirty-three, he became a full professor. In 1918, he succeeded Woodrow Wilson as McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence. Corwin was also the first chair of Princeton’s department of politics. He was active in the profession and became the president of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in 1931.

Corwin was a prolific writer and authored more than twenty books and over 150 scholarly articles. He is often noted for the advances he made by analyzing constitutional concepts in historical context. Many of his studies were considered landmark contributions when they were published and continue to be read today. For example, Corwin’s book, The Constitution and What It Means Today, was first published in 1920 and is now in its fourteenth edition.

One of Corwin’s most famous essays is “The ‘Higher Law’ Background of American Constitutional Law,” which was published in 1928. In this article, he examines the intellectual roots of American constitutional thought and explanations relating to the Constitution’s dominance. The importance of this article is underscored by the fact that scholars continue to debate its merits many years after its publication.

Corwin was a frequent commentator on public issues of the day. He was not shy about writing for the popular press or granting newspaper interviews. He advocated U.S. entry into World War I (1914–1918) and was a vocal supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Corwin provided guidance in different capacities to two presidents. The advice he gave to Woodrow Wilson was more informal and not always implemented. During Roosevelt’s administration, Corwin served as an adviser to the Public Works Administration. Corwin then worked in a consulting capacity for the attorney general.

The most controversial aspect of Corwin’s career was his defense of Roosevelt’s court-packing plan, which included testifying before the Senate’s Committee on Court Reorganization. He had difficulty defending his views before the committee because, earlier, he was quite critical of the plan. It has been suggested that Corwin’s support of the court-packing plan and his lackluster Senate testimony ended any reasonable chance of him receiving an appointment to the Supreme Court. After these events, Corwin became more politically conservative and openly critical of Roosevelt.

Corwin retired from Princeton in 1946, but continued to pursue an active research agenda, publishing several books and a handful of articles. The APSA offers an annual award in his name for the best doctoral dissertation in public law.

Bibliography:

Clayton, Cornell W. “Edward S. Corwin as Public Scholar.” In The Pioneers of Judicial Behavior, edited by Nancy Maveety. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
Corwin, Edward S. Edward S. Corwin’s the Constitution and What It Means Today, 14th ed, edited by Harold W. Chase and Craig R. Ducat. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
The President: Office and Powers. New York: New York University Press, 1940.
Crews, Kenneth D., ed. Corwin’s Constitution: Essays and Insights of Edward S. Corwin. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Edward S. Corwin and the American Constitution, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985.
Loss, Richard, ed. Corwin on the Constitution, 3 vols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981–1998.
Mason, Alpheus T., and Gerald Garvey, eds. American Constitutional History: Essays by Edward S. Corwin. New York: Harper and Row, 1964.
McDowell, Gary L. “The Corrosive Constitutionalism of Edward S. Corwin.” Law and Social Inquiry 14 (1989): 603–614.