Jamie Mayerfeld

Jamie Mayerfeld, affiliate faculty in the Department of Philosophy, received his PhD in politics from Princeton University in 1992. He is a professor of political science and adjunct professor in the Law, Societies & Justice program as well as a faculty associate in the Center for Human Rights. He has received fellowships from Columbia Law School, Princeton University, and the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities.

Mayerfeld specializes in political theory and human rights. He is the author most recently of The Promise of Human Rights: Constitutional Government, Democratic Legitimacy, and International Law (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016). In this book, he develops an account of constitutional democracy as a cooperative project enlisting both domestic and international guardians to strengthen the protection of human rights. His other publications include Suffering and Moral Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 1999) and articles on various topics in political theory, moral philosophy, human rights, and international criminal law.

Mayerfeld has taught courses on the history of political thought; democratic theory; contemporary theories of justice; nationalism; human rights theory; religion, secularism, and toleration; the philosophy of punishment; human rights law; US constitutional law; and US detention policy in Guantanamo Bay.