Adrian Vermeule

Cornelius Adrian Comstock Vermeule (last syllable pronounced “mule”) (born 1968) is an American legal scholar. He writes as "Adrian Vermeule."

Vermeule is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B., 1990) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1993).

Vermeule clerked for Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

He joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School in 1998 and was twice awarded the Graduating Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence (2002, 2004).

Vermeule became professor of law at Harvard Law School in 2006, was named John H. Watson Professor of Law in 2008, and was named Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law in 2016. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012, at the age of 43.

In 2015, Vemeule co-founded the book review, The New Rambler.

Vermeule's writings focus on constitutional law, administrative law, and the theory of institutional design. He has authored or co-authored eight books. He teaches administrative law, legislation, and constitutional law.

According to Vermeule, “The central question is not ‘How, in principle, should a text be interpreted?’ The question instead should be, ‘How should certain institutions, with their distinctive abilities and limitations, interpret certain texts?’ My conclusions are that judges acting under uncertainty should strive, above all, to minimize the costs of mistaken decisions and the costs of decision making, and to maximize the predictability of their decisions.”

Vermeule is a judicial review skeptic. One legal scholar has written that Vermeule's approach to the interpretation of law "eschews, and attempts to transcend, the main elements of the long-standing debates over methods that courts should use to interpret statutes and the Constitution. . . . he sees no need to resolve apparently burning questions such as whether courts are bound by what legislatures write, or by what legislatures intend . . . For Vermeule, everything comes down to a simple but withering cost–benefit analysis." Vermeule argues for a form of popular constitutionalism, in which the courts "should enforce clear and specific constitutional texts, but should disclaim any role beyond that. Where constitutional texts are ambiguous or open ended, courts should let legislatures interpret them. Under this rule, courts would cease enforcing the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. In particular, freedom of speech, due process, and equal protection of the laws would all be remitted to legislative enforcement.".

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