Faculty > Robert Tsai

Associate Professor Contact Room 351 Phone: (541) 346-3691 Email Robert Tsai

Professor Tsai earned a B.A., magna cum laude, in Political Science and History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Before entering the academy, he clerked for Denny Chin, U.S.D.C. for the Southern District of New York and Hugh Bownes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

His primary research interests include American political culture, the discourse of popular sovereignty, radical constitutionalism, criminal procedure, and the interaction between courts and other institutions. His first book, "Eloquence and Reason: Creating a First Amendment Culture" (Yale University Press, Oct. 2008), theorizes the rise of twentieth century First Amendment culture.

In 2007, Professor Tsai received the university's Lorry I. Lokey Award for exemplary interdisciplinary scholarship and the law school's Orlando J. Hollis Teaching Award. His papers have twice been selected for the Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum: once in constitutional theory and once in constitutional history.

Recent Publications

"Democracy's Handmaid," 86 Boston University Law Review 1 (2006)

"Sacred Visions of Law," 90 Iowa Law Review1095 (2005)

"Fire, Metaphor & Constitutional Myth-Making," 93 Georgetown Law Journal 181 (2004)