Chris Havasy is an Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson. His primary area of research is the relationships between political institutions and citizens, and the ramifications of those relationships on the separation of powers.  His research and teaching interests are in administrative law, constitutional law, legislation, legal history, and statutory interpretation.  He has additional interests in law and political economy, law and democracy, torts, corporate governance, and legal philosophy.

His current projects examine how to evaluate conflicts between different forms of social justice in public law; how to properly structure interest group lobbying; the intellectual history of administrative law; and the use of political theory in constitutional interpretation.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review (twice), UC Davis Law Review, and Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. 

Chris recently completed his Ph.D. in Government at Harvard University. Before entering his doctoral program, Chris worked at the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the DOJ Criminal Division’s Office of Policy and Legislation, and the EEOC’s Appellate Services Division. Chris also has extensive pro bono 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 an M.A. in Government from Harvard and a Sc.B. magna cum laude with Honors in Political Science and Honors in Biology from Brown University.