Remembering Ran Hirschl

[For a memorial celebration of Ran Hirschl's life and scholarship at the University of Toronto, November 6, 2026. Updated version of what I published earlier in Balkinization, but worth sharing, particularly because I was unable to be physically pressent for the event] Ran Hirschl was a pathbreaking scholar, an even better human being, and an even better friend. Words cannot capture his impact on scholarship and on the lives of the numerous scholars he touched. These excerpts from a letter on his behalf for a lifetime achievement award are a weak attempt to do justice to him and his legacy. My comments remain in the present tense because through his works, example, and encouragement, Ran will always be with us. His scholarship and influence lives in our scholarship to the point where we will often not be able to distinguish where his thought ends and ours begins. Hirschl is the leading thinker on comparative constitutionalism in the world. No political scientist in the public law…

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