Constituting Empire

Constituting Empire PDF Author: Daniel J. Hulsebosch
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876879
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 505

Get Book Here

Book Description
According to the traditional understanding of American constitutional law, the Revolution produced a new conception of the constitution as a set of restrictions on the power of the state rather than a mere description of governmental roles. Daniel J. Hulsebosch complicates this viewpoint by arguing that American ideas of constitutions were based on British ones and that, in New York, those ideas evolved over the long eighteenth century as New York moved from the periphery of the British Atlantic empire to the center of a new continental empire. Hulsebosch explains how colonists and administrators reconfigured British legal sources to suit their needs in an expanding empire. In this story, familiar characters such as Alexander Hamilton and James Kent appear in a new light as among the nation's most important framers, and forgotten loyalists such as Superintendent of Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson and lawyer William Smith Jr. are rightly returned to places of prominence. In his paradigm-shifting analysis, Hulsebosch captures the essential paradox at the heart of American constitutional history: the Revolution, which brought political independence and substituted the people for the British crown as the source of legitimate authority, also led to the establishment of a newly powerful constitution and a new postcolonial genre of constitutional law that would have been the envy of the British imperial agents who had struggled to govern the colonies before the Revolution.

Constituting Empire

Constituting Empire PDF Author: Daniel J. Hulsebosch
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876879
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 505

Get Book Here

Book Description
According to the traditional understanding of American constitutional law, the Revolution produced a new conception of the constitution as a set of restrictions on the power of the state rather than a mere description of governmental roles. Daniel J. Hulsebosch complicates this viewpoint by arguing that American ideas of constitutions were based on British ones and that, in New York, those ideas evolved over the long eighteenth century as New York moved from the periphery of the British Atlantic empire to the center of a new continental empire. Hulsebosch explains how colonists and administrators reconfigured British legal sources to suit their needs in an expanding empire. In this story, familiar characters such as Alexander Hamilton and James Kent appear in a new light as among the nation's most important framers, and forgotten loyalists such as Superintendent of Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson and lawyer William Smith Jr. are rightly returned to places of prominence. In his paradigm-shifting analysis, Hulsebosch captures the essential paradox at the heart of American constitutional history: the Revolution, which brought political independence and substituted the people for the British crown as the source of legitimate authority, also led to the establishment of a newly powerful constitution and a new postcolonial genre of constitutional law that would have been the envy of the British imperial agents who had struggled to govern the colonies before the Revolution.

Constitution-making in Asia

Constitution-making in Asia PDF Author: H. Kumarasingham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317245105
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Get Book Here

Book Description
Britain’s main imperial possessions in Asia were granted independence in the 1940s and 1950s and needed to craft constitutions for their new states. Invariably the indigenous elites drew upon British constitutional ideas and institutions regardless of the political conditions that prevailed in their very different lands. Many Asian nations called upon the services of Englishman and Law Professor Sir Ivor Jennings to advise or assist their own constitution making. Although he was one of the twentieth century’s most prominent constitutional scholars, his opinion and influence were often controversial and remain so due to his advocating British norms in Asian form. This book examines the process of constitutional formation in the era of decolonisation and state building in Asia. It sheds light upon the influence and participation of Jennings in particular and British ideas in general on democracy and institutions across the Asian continent. Critical cases studies on India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Nepal – all linked by Britain and Jennings – assess the distinctive methods and outcomes of constitution making and how British ideas fared in these major states. The book offers chapters on the Westminster model in Asia, Human Rights, Nationalism, Ethnic politics, Federalism, Foreign influence, Decolonisation, Authoritarianism, the Rule of Law, Parliamentary democracy and the power and influence of key political actors. Taking an original stance on constitution making in Asia after British rule, it also puts forward ideas of contemporary significance for Asian states and other emerging democracies engaged in constitution making, regime change and seeking to understand their colonial past. The first political, historical or constitutional analysis comparing Asia’s experience with its indelible British constitutional legacy, this book is a critical resource on state building and constitution making in Asia following independence. It will appeal to students and scholars of world history, public law and politics.

A Constitutional History of India, 1600-1935

A Constitutional History of India, 1600-1935 PDF Author: Arthur Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351978756
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book, first published in 1936, provides a comprehensive description and analysis of every constitutional aspect of British rule in India from 1600 to 1936. Beginning with a description of the East India Company before Plassey, its constitution, administration of settlements, and relation to the Indian states, the book closes with an account of the reforms of the 1930s, the events leading up to the White Paper and an analysis and elucidation of the Government of India Act 1935.

The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution

The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution PDF Author: Jack P. Greene
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139492934
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using the British Empire as a case study, this succinct study argues that the establishment of overseas settlements in America created a problem of constitutional organization. The failure to resolve the resulting tensions led to the thirteen continental colonies seceding from the empire in 1776. Challenging those historians who have assumed that the British had the law on their side during the debates that led to the American Revolution, this volume argues that the empire had long exhibited a high degree of constitutional multiplicity, with each colony having its own discrete constitution. Contending that these constitutions cannot be conflated with the metropolitan British constitution, it argues that British refusal to accept the legitimacy of colonial understandings of the sanctity of the many colonial constitutions and the imperial constitution was the critical element leading to the American Revolution.

Constitutional History of the American Revolution

Constitutional History of the American Revolution PDF Author: John Phillip Reid
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780299112905
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description


Bills of Rights and Decolonization

Bills of Rights and Decolonization PDF Author: Charles Parkinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199231931
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
"It presents an alternative perspective on the end of Empire by focusing upon one aspect of constitutional decolonization and the importance of the local legal culture in determining each dependency's constitutional settlement, and provides a series of empirical case studies on the incorporation of human rights instruments into domestic constitutions when negotiated between a state and its dependencies. More generally this book highlights Britain's human rights legacy to its former Empire."--BOOK JACKET.

A Constitutional History of the United States

A Constitutional History of the United States PDF Author: Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional history
Languages : en
Pages : 858

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire PDF Author: H. W. Crocker, III
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
ISBN: 1596986298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Get Book Here

Book Description
Presents an irreverant and humorous look at the four-hundred-year history of the British empire.

The Oxford History of the British Empire: The eighteenth century

The Oxford History of the British Empire: The eighteenth century PDF Author: Peter James Marshall
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198205635
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 662

Get Book Here

Book Description
Examines the history of British worldwide expansion from the Glorious Revolution of 1689 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a crucial phase in the creation of the modern British Empire.

A Constitutional History of Secession

A Constitutional History of Secession PDF Author: John Remington Graham
Publisher: Pelican Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
A timeless reference on the right of secession from Britainís Glorious Revolution to Canada's current situation. Born in Minnesota, John Remington Graham is a constitutional-law attorney who served as an advisor on secession to the amicus curiae for Quebec.