Stephen Macedo

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values

Stephen Macedo writes and teaches on political theory, ethics, public policy, and law, especially on topics related to liberalism, democracy and citizenship, diversity and civic education, religion and politics, and the family and sexuality. He is author of Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage (Princeton University Press, 2015).  In it, he defends same-sex marriage, marriage as a civil institution in law, and monogamy, from the standpoints of justice and the human good. He is currently writing a book on justice and migration.

From 2001-2009, he was Director of the University Center for Human Values. As founding director of Princeton's Program in Law and Public Affairs (1999-2001), he chaired the Princeton Project on Universal Jurisdiction, helped formulate the Princeton Principles on Universal Jurisdiction, and edited Universal Jurisdiction: International Courts and the Prosecution of Serious Crimes Under International Law (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).  

As vice president of the American Political Science Association he was first chair of its standing committee on Civic Education and Engagement and principal co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It (Brookings, 2005). His other books include Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy (Harvard U. Press, 2000); and Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism (Oxford U. Press, 1990). He is co-author and co-editor of American Constitutional Interpretation, with W. F. Murphy, J. E. Fleming, and S. A. Barber (Foundation Press, 6th edition 2018).   

He is current President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, which publishes the annual NOMOS volumes, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.   

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