The conference will focus on showing how the Founding fathers used Montesquieu’s theories. Obviously, the Founders of the American Republic were not scholars, but first and foremost, political actors of their time. They did not read Montesquieu for the sole pleasure of it, but above all to find answers to some pressing and daunting issues: Was it possible to adopt a republican government for a territory so extended? Was the representative government the good remedy to such a problem? How to distribute power in order for despotism to be avoided? Was federalism the unique way to preserve a republican form of government in modern times? Those difficulties would appear as pertaining per se to the realm of political philosophy. Nevertheless, what may be unique in the case of the early American Republic, is the fact that solving those issues was a matter of life and death for the young body politic.

Argument

The conference will focus on showing how the Founding fathers used Montesquieu’s theories. Obviously, the Founders of the American Republic were not scholars, but first and foremost, political actors of their time. They did not read Montesquieu for the sole pleasure of it, but above all to find answers to some pressing and daunting issues: Was it possible to adopt a republican government for a territory so extended? Was the representative government the good remedy to such a problem? How to distribute power in order for despotism to be avoided? Was federalism the unique way to preserve a republican form of government in modern times? Those difficulties would appear as pertaining per se to the realm of political philosophy. Nevertheless, what may be unique in the case of the early American Republic, is the fact that solving those issues was a matter of life and death for the young body politic.

Program

Wednesday, 15 June 2022

• 9:30 Opening of the Conference
• 9:30 Hugo Toudic : Welcome Speech Organizer of the Conference
• 9:45 Alain Schuhl : Opening Remarks Deputy CEO for Science, CNRS

10 - 12:15 From The Spirit of the Laws to the US Constitution

(Chair : Céline Spector)

• 10 Jack Rakove, Professor Emeritus of History, Stanford University : "Montesquieu’s "Influence" on Madison : Some Problems, Some Puzzles"

11 Pause

• 11:15 Hugo Toudic, PhD Candidate, CNRS-University of Chicago/Sorbonne University : From the Separation of Powers to the Federative Republic"

14:30 - 17 Montesquieu’s most astute reader ?

(Chair : Céline Spector)

• 14:30 Paul Cheney, Professor of History, The University of Chicago : "Terror and Revolution : Montesquieu and the American Founding in Arendt’s Political Philosophy"
• 15:30 Sharon Krause, Professor of Political Science, Brown University : "Montesquieu, Arendt, and the ’Constitutio Libertatis’ : Relational Power, Plural Freedom"

Thursday, 16 June 2022

9:30 - 12h30 The Oracle of Political Science

(Chair : Paul Cheney)

• 9:30 Adam Lebovitz, Research Fellow, University of Cambridge : "The Transatlantic Turn Against Montesquieu, 1770-1815"
• 10:30 Michael Zuckert, Professor, University of Notre-Dame : "Anglophilia and the American Founding"

11:30 Pause

• 11:45 Odile Tourneux, PhD, ENS de Lyon : "Souveraineté et républiques fédératives"

15 - 17:30 The Modernities of Montesquieu

(Chair : Hugo Toudic)

• 15 h Paul O. Carrese, Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University : "A Defensible Liberal Republic : The Montesquieuan Foundations of American Foreign Policy"
• 16 h Jacob T. Levy, Professor of Political Science, McGill University : "An ancient constitution built from modern materials"

Friday, 17 June 2022

9:30 - 12 From Europe to America. And Back

(Chair : Paul Cheney)

• 9:30 Luke Foster, PhD Candidate, The University of Chicago - University of Notre Dame : "Montesquieu’s Case for Honor in The Federalist : Transposing the Society of Orders to the Commercial Republic"
• 10:30 Nicolas Arens, Post Doctorant, UC Louvain : "From virtue to patriotism, from Europe to America, and back : When Tocqueville tests Montesquieu in America"

14 - 16:30 AMERICA 2026 Roundtable

Chair : Patrick Spero

14 Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, Professor of American History, University of Paris 8 : "Translating American State Constitutions into French (1780s-1790s). Lost in translation ?"

• 14:30 - 15 Iris de Rode, Research fellow, Mount Vernon : "Military Enlightenment on the Grounds - The French and American Independance."
• 15 - 15:30 Jean-Baptiste Goyard, PhD Candidate in History, University of Paris 8 : "The Small-Republic Thesis Before 1787 : An Anachronism ?""
• 15:30 - 16:30 Patrick Spero, Librarian and Director, American Philosophical Society : Conclusion of the Roundtable

16:30 Closing Speech

• Robert Morissey, Professor of French Literature, University of Chicago : "A l’ombre des Lumières. L’invention du discours victimaire dans les Lettres persanes"

17:15 Final Reception at the Sorbonne