Bill Watson
Assistant Professor of Law
Richard W. & Marie L. Corman Scholar
Contact
Assistant:
Laura Lotzgesell
(217) 244-0359
About
Bill Watson is an Assistant Professor in the College of Law. He works at the intersection of public law and philosophy, with an emphasis on constitutional and statutory interpretation, precedential reasoning, and the nature of law. His scholarship addresses, among other things, the role of general common law in Founding-era legal reasoning, an objection to originalism in constitutional interpretation, the Supreme Court’s treatment of precedent, and why lawyers agree on the law as often as they do. His work has appeared in both law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the Northwestern University Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Law and Philosophy, Legal Theory, and other venues.
Professor Watson received his JD from the University of Chicago Law School and his PhD in Philosophy from Cornell University. As a law student, he served as the Book Review & Essays Editor for the University of Chicago Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced complex commercial litigation with Kirkland & Ellis. He was a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School immediately prior to joining the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Law in 2024, where he teaches courses on Constitutional Law, Legislation and Regulation, and Jurisprudence.
Education
PhD, Cornell University
JD, University of Chicago Law School
BA, University of Saint Thomas
Areas of Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Jurisprudence
Constitutional Law
Legislation and Statutory Interpretation
Publications
Selected Publications
“Obstructing Precedent,” 119 Nw. U. L. Rev. 259 (2024)
“Did the Court in SFFA Overrule Grutter?,” 99 Notre Dame L. Rev. Reflection 113 (2023)
“Explaining Legal Agreement,” 14 Jurisprudence 221 (2023)
Courses
News
- Watson publishes new article in Boston University Law Review (Boston University Law Review, November 13, 2025)