Chris Havasy

Chris Havasy has research and teaching interests in administrative law, constitutional law, corporate law and governance, legislation and statutory interpretation, and torts. His current projects examine the political legitimacy of the administrative state; the use Enlightenment political thought in constitutional interpretation; the relationship between the concepts of legitimacy in administrative law and corporate governance; theories of power, democracy, and legitimacy in corporate governance; and how to structure interest group lobbying in political institutions. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

Chris is also a Ph.D. Candidate in Government at Harvard University. His dissertation examines the historical development of legal and political theories to constrain administrative power and proposes a new theory of administrative legitimacy grounded in the relations between agencies and persons in civil society. Before entering his doctoral program, Chris worked at the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Office of Policy and Legislation, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Appellate Services Division. Chris also has significant volunteer experience in civil rights and criminal justice reform efforts.

He holds a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was an executive editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He also has a M.A. in Government from Harvard University and a Sc.B. magna cum laude with Honors in Political Science and Honors in Biology from Brown University.