Harvard Law's 2026 Scalia Lecture | Jud Campbell: The Federalist Bill of Rights

A lecture by Jud Campbell, professor of law at Stanford Law School, with introductory remarks by Harvard Law School Dean John Goldberg. Did the authors of the Bill of Rights intend to spell out what Americans’ fundamental rights meant or simply affirm rights whose meaning would continue to be debated? According to Jud Campbell, a legal historian and professor at Stanford Law School, the first 10 amendments to the 1787 charter were drafted not as new rights, but as affirmations of existing natural and customary rights — entitlements predating the United States of America. Delivering the annual Scalia Lecture at Harvard Law School on Oct. 19, 2026 Campbell argued that the authors of the Bill of Rights do not seem to have considered their text as legally determinate — that is, that the amendments contained an answer for every legal question within their scope. Instead, he suggested an alternate possibility: “Perhaps they had a different understanding of the relationship between fundamental rights and constitutional text.” Read more: https://hls.harvard.edu/today/2026-sc... ------- Visit our website: https://hls.harvard.edu/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://hls.harvard.edu/newsletter Follow us on social media: YouTube:    / @harvardlawschool   Instagram:   / harvardlaw   Facebook:   / harvardlaw   LinkedIn:   / harvard-law-school