BA (Concordia University, Montréal), MA (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)

Curriculum Vitae: .pdf

Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict, University of Pennsylvania, 3819-33 Chestnut Street, Suite 305 Philadelphia, PA 19104. Telephone: 215.898.3510; Fax: 215.573.0653

David is a Henry Salvatori Fellow and Doctoral Candidate in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and holds a Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar doctoral fellowship though the Penn Program in Ethnic Conflict. He graduated Honours with Great Distinction from Concordia University, Montréal, and was recipient of the Renée Vautelet Prize for Political Science, awarded to the top graduating student in the department.

His research interests include the politics of First Nations and indigenous peoples, the historical development of Empire in the modern era, pluralist federations and ethnopolitical conflict, and American Political Development. David brings an interest in social geography to much of his work. His current projects include a history of the portrayal of Doukhobors in Canadian media and the legitimation of the Canadian state, an analysis of the role of the U.S. Congress in the expansion of the American frontier in the late 19th century, and the construction of indigeneity.

Recent Conference Presentations:

2008 (with John Lapinski). “Policy Making and Policy Substance: An Analysis of Sovereignty Related Issues in the United States, 1877-1994” presented at the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, convened in Boston, Massachusetts, August 28-31, 2008. Panel 22-4 on “Policymaking in Legislatures.”

Abstract:
This article reconsiders the importance of including policy issue content and legislative significance into our study of lawmaking.  Specifically, it empirically demonstrates that lawmaking within the policy issue area of “sovereignty” related issues –  an issue area theoretically important for students of American Political Development – is different than other issues areas such as domestic or international affairs lawmaking.  Although the results are preliminary, the findings suggest that aggregating all lawmaking provides a misleading picture of how lawmaking works. 

2008."Judicial Review in Kingdom and Dominions: Statutory Review, Colonialism, and First Peoples in Comparative Perspective" presented at the Joint Annual Conference of the Law and Society Association and the Association canadienne droit et société, held in Montréal from May 29 - June 1, 2008. Panel on "Regulating Difference in Comparative Perspective: Historical Contexts." David presented his paper alongside Leslie F. Goldstein (University of Delaware), Lyndsay M. Campbell (University of California, Berkeley), and Nicole C. O'Byrne (University of Victoria).

Abstract:
Judicial review, whatever else it may be, provides a mechanism by which the judiciary can affect the implementation, contours, and the formulation of policy. As such, it provides a possible avenue of access to a variable ‘open’ state. Westminster democracies have historically avoided judicial review in order to concentrate policymaking authority in the legislature and responsible executive. In recent years a number of Westminster polities have incorporated and expanded judicial review. This paper explores how this occurred in three Westminster states, arguing that long-run processes shaped the conceptions of judges of their role in the constitutional order, affecting their willingness to assert powers of review. Importantly, structures of imperialism and federalism provided varying opportunities for the judiciary to assert this power. A full account of the emergence of judicial review needs to take account of these structural/institutional factors—the available resources of judges to assert a power to invalidate legislation and their institutionally shaped willingness to do so. I conclude with a discussion of how the different constructions of judicial review at the different moments in each state’s history affected the mobilization strategies of indigenous peoples, and the varying imposition of control by the state.

David can be contacted at batemand@sas.upenn.edu