250 Years of America, From Rome to Washington D.C.: Between Origin and Myth

Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull, (US-PD).

The 250 years of the American Declaration of Independence mark the beginning of an experiment that has largely revolutionized the global legal field. When the colonies of America broke away from British rule and a few years later gave life to the U.S., they crystallized a series of mechanisms that would define much of the modern understanding of constitutional law. Key legal notions such as independence, sovereignty, federalism, no-taxation-without-representation, separation of powers, checks and balances, just to name a few, would not carry the meaning and importance that they have nowadays without the document issued in Philadelphia on the 4th of July of 1776. The American Declaration of Independence is therefore much more than an American story. It is a story of how large parts of the contemporary world still conceive of law, politics, and philosophy. And, because of the special connection that has constantly linked American law, politics, and spirituality, America’s birth is also a story of how religion, law, and politics can intertwine.  

It is safe to say that law and especially constitutional law would not be the same without the Declaration and what it brought about. But what would the Declaration be without what came before it? How revolutionary was the American Revolution when it comes to its goals and rationales? And how revolutionary is it now?

The symposium hosts a variety of voices that reflect on what was necessary for the Declaration of Independence and for the Constitution of the United States to come to life and on its global legacy. Powerful religious, philosophical, and theological ideas that marked the passage to the modern age backed those ideas; the Declaration itself and later the Constitution gave them a way to shine and become a point of reference for the centuries to come. Umberto Vincenti argues that the roots of the Declaration of Independence are profound and stretch as far back as ancient Rome, which provided the theorists of the Independence with a tapestry of ideas and concepts that were critical in shaping their minds and motivating them; John Witte, Jr. uncovers the hidden but powerful influence of Dutch thinking, theology, and religious motivations that inspired the American colonies to revolt against the British monarchy and to craft critical ideas such as federalism, limited government, or social contract, among many others; Jeff Pojanowski offers a framework to understand American constitutionalism in light of classical thinking and natural law theories, while distancing it from contemporary libertarianism and common-good readings of classics; Nathan Chapman distills the ways in which the religiosity of American revolutionaries and framers permeated their legal mindset and documents and Christian practice and theology intertwined with other powerful intellectual movements; Luca Vanoni reflects on the global legacy of American constitutionalism–what the American experiments has taught to the world as well as how the world has understood of the lesson.

What particularly stands out from this lively discussion is that American independence and constitutionalism are a mosaic of thoughts and intuitions. Those who fought for independence and later built the country massaged them in ways that were partly as old as human civilization, partly as new as a newly born baby. That mixture of old and new ideas has hardly generated a comprehensive, organic, and undisputed set of beliefs and concepts; on the contrary, it continues to stimulate debates and even fierce disagreements. But, after all, it is perhaps in the lively of such debates that lie the heart and significance of the American project. ♦

Series Convener

Andrea Pin (University of Padua, JD; University of Turin, PhD) is Full Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Padua and Senior Fellow in the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, where he is also McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow (2024-2029). Pin has taught in the United States (Emory, Notre Dame, William and Mary University), Israel (Bar Ilan and Reichman University), and Russia (Lomonosov State University of Moscow). He has authored eight books, including The Legal Foundations of Religious Freedom (Norte Dame Press, 2026), edited two volumes, and published numerous law articles.

Series Participants

“Going Dutch with the American Founders“

John Witte, Jr. is Woodruff University Professor of Law, McDonald Distinguished Professor of Religion, and Faculty Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He has published 50 plus books and the 350 plus articles, with this text adapted from his The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 143-51. 

“Christianity and Constitutionalism at the American Founding: An Introduction“

Nathan S. Chapman is Associate Dean for Faculty Development and A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. He is the author, with Michael W. McConnell, of Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Promotes Religious Pluralism and Protects Freedom of Conscience (Oxford University Press, 2023).

“Traces of Ancient Rome in the Declaration of Independence“

Umberto Vincenti is a full professor of Roman Law at the University of Padua, where he teaches the courses “Constitutional Models of the West”. He has served as director of the Department of History and Philosophy of Law, dean of the School of Law, and president of the Law School at the University of Padua. He is the author of numerous books and essays.

“How Modern is the U.S. Constitutional Order?“

Jeffrey Pojanowski is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School and a McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He also serves as co-editor of the American Journal of Jurisprudence.

“The Global Legacy Of American Exceptionalism: The Sound of Liberty“

Luca Pietro Vanoni is Full Professor of Comparative Public Law at the University of Milan. He has held visiting research fellowships at the University of Notre Dame and City University of London.

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