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The American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, or ASPLP, is a learned society founded in 1955 by political theorist Carl Friedrich. The ASPLP's annual thematic conferences form the foundation for the Nomos series. The ASPLP operates according to a distinctive three-discipline structure. Its annual meetings rotate on a three-year cycle, meeting in conjunction with the American Association of Law Schools, the American Political Science Association, and the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division). Its presidency rotates among the three disciplines, with vice-presidents always representing the other two. And its conferences consist of three lead papers, one from each discipline, each with two commentators from the other two disciplines.

Nomos has published work by some of the leading political and legal theorists of the twentieth century, from a wide range of ideological and methodological perspectives, including Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Lon Fuller, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Michael Walzer, Judith Shklar, Cass Sunstein, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Posner, Sheldon Wolin, James Buchanan, Catherine MacKinnon, Jules Coleman, Jean Hampton, Jon Elster, George Kateb, and Richard Epstein. The series was edited by Friedrich for volumes I-IX, coedited by J. Roland Pennock and John Chapman for volumes IX-XXXI, and edited by Chapman alone for XXXI-XXXV. Ian Shapiro edited volumes XXXV-XLII; Stephen Macedo, volumes XLII-XLVI; and Melissa Williams, XLVI-. Sanford Levinson will succeed Williams with volume LI. After Chapman's tenure ended, it became standard practice for each volume to have a guest co-editor, a position that also rotates among the three disciplines.

Presidents of the ASPLP have included:

• Carl J. Friedrich
• Charles M. Hendel
• Lon L. Fuller
• Frederick Watkins
• Richard B. Brandt
• Jerome Hall
• J. Roland Pennock
• John Rawls
• Graham Hughes
• Sheldon Wolin
• John Ladd
• Paul A. Freund
• Judith N. Shklar
• Alan Gewirth
• Louis Henkin
• Dennis F. Thompson
• Joel Feinberg
• Kent Greenawalt
• Michael Walzer
• Martha Nussbaum
• Frank Michelman
• Amy Gutmann
• Will Kymlicka
• Donald Horowitz

The volumes in the series, and their publishers, have been:

Harvard University Press:

• I. Authority 1958

The Liberal Arts Press:

• II. Community 1959
• III. Responsibility 1960

Atherton Press:

• IV. Liberty 1962
• V. The Public Interest 1962
• VI. Justice 1963
• VII. Rational Decision 1964
• VIII. Revolution 1966
• IX. Equality 1967
• X. Representation 1968
• XI. Voluntary Association 1969
• XII. Political and Legal Obligation 1970
• XIII. Privacy 1971

Aldine-Atherton Press:

• XIV. Coercion 1972

Lieber-Atherton Press:

• XV. The Limits of Law 1974
• XVI. Participation 1975

New York University Press:

• XVII. Human Nature in Politics 1977
• XVIII. Due Process 1977
• XIX. Anarchism 1978
• XX. Constitutionalism 1979
• XXI. Compromise 1979
• XXII. Property 1980
• XXIII. Human Rights 1981
• XXIV. Ethics, Economics, and the Law 1982
• XXV. Liberal Democracy 1983
• XXVI. Marxism 1983
• XXVII. Criminal Justice 1983
• XXVIII. Justification 1985
• XXIX. Authority Revisited 1985
• XXX. Religion, Morality, and the Law 1988
• XXXI. Markets and Justice 1989
• XXXII. Majorities and Minorities 1990
• XXXIII. Compensatory Justice 1991
• XXXIV. Virtue 1992
• XXXV. Democratic Community 1993
• XXXVI. The Rule of Law 1994
• XXXVII. Theory and Practice 1995
• XXXVIII. Political Order 1996
• XXXIX. Ethnicity and Group Rights 1997
• XL. Integrity and Conscience 1998
• XLI. Global Justice 1999
• XLII. Designing Democratic Institutions 2000
• XLIII. Moral and Political Education 2001
• XLIV. Child, Family, and the State 2003
• XLV. Secession and Self-Determination 2003
• XLVI. Political Exclusion and Domination 2004
• XLVII. Humanitarian Intervention 2006

forthcoming from New York University Press:

• XLVIII. Toleration and Its Limits
• XLIX. Moral Universalism and Pluralism
• L. Transitional Justice
• LI. American Conservative Thought and Politics

The volumes originally published by Atherton, Aldine-Atherton, and Lieber-Atherton will be republished by Transaction Press beginning in 2007.