Kim Lane Scheppele focuses on the intersection of constitutional and international law, particularly in constitutional systems under stress. After 1989, Scheppele studied the emergence of constitutional law in Hungary and Russia, living in both places for extended periods. After 9/11, Scheppele researched the effects of the international “war on terror” on constitutional protections around the world.
While at the Humanities Council, she has been working on a book called Counter-Constitutions, exploring how constitutions come to feel settled in daily practice and how easily they can be disturbed by actively resurfaced histories. With special reference to the three constitutions of post-WWII Hungary, Counter-Constitutions works through constitutional engagements with past and future, aspiration and disappointment, awe and abjection. Scheppele has also been working on a second book, The End of the End of History, about the rise of a new form of autocracy in which leaders win elections in order to subvert democratic values and replace constitutionalism with legalism.
