Author: Sanford Levinson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400821630
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
An increasing number of constitutional theorists, within both the legal academy and university departments of government, are focusing on the conceptual and political problems attached to the notion of constitutional amendment. Amendments are, among other things, recognitions of the imperfection of existing schemes of government. The relative ease or difficulty of amendment has significant implications for the ways that governments respond to problems that call either for new structures of governance or new powers for already established structures. This book brings together essays by leading legal authorities and political scientists on a range of questions from whether the U.S. Constitution is subject to amendment by procedures other than those authorized by Article V to how significant change is conceptualized within classical rabbinic Judaism. Though the essays are concerned for the most part with the American experience, other constitutional traditions are considered as well. The contributors include Bruce Ackerman, Akhil Reed Amar, Mark E. Brandon, David R. Dow, Stephen M. Griffin, Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein, Sanford Levinson, Donald Lutz, Walter Murphy, Frederick Schauer, John R. Vile, and Noam J. Zohar.
Responding to Imperfection
Author: Sanford Levinson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400821630
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
An increasing number of constitutional theorists, within both the legal academy and university departments of government, are focusing on the conceptual and political problems attached to the notion of constitutional amendment. Amendments are, among other things, recognitions of the imperfection of existing schemes of government. The relative ease or difficulty of amendment has significant implications for the ways that governments respond to problems that call either for new structures of governance or new powers for already established structures. This book brings together essays by leading legal authorities and political scientists on a range of questions from whether the U.S. Constitution is subject to amendment by procedures other than those authorized by Article V to how significant change is conceptualized within classical rabbinic Judaism. Though the essays are concerned for the most part with the American experience, other constitutional traditions are considered as well. The contributors include Bruce Ackerman, Akhil Reed Amar, Mark E. Brandon, David R. Dow, Stephen M. Griffin, Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein, Sanford Levinson, Donald Lutz, Walter Murphy, Frederick Schauer, John R. Vile, and Noam J. Zohar.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400821630
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Book Description
An increasing number of constitutional theorists, within both the legal academy and university departments of government, are focusing on the conceptual and political problems attached to the notion of constitutional amendment. Amendments are, among other things, recognitions of the imperfection of existing schemes of government. The relative ease or difficulty of amendment has significant implications for the ways that governments respond to problems that call either for new structures of governance or new powers for already established structures. This book brings together essays by leading legal authorities and political scientists on a range of questions from whether the U.S. Constitution is subject to amendment by procedures other than those authorized by Article V to how significant change is conceptualized within classical rabbinic Judaism. Though the essays are concerned for the most part with the American experience, other constitutional traditions are considered as well. The contributors include Bruce Ackerman, Akhil Reed Amar, Mark E. Brandon, David R. Dow, Stephen M. Griffin, Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein, Sanford Levinson, Donald Lutz, Walter Murphy, Frederick Schauer, John R. Vile, and Noam J. Zohar.
Constitutional Interpretation in Singapore
Author: Jaclyn L Neo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317428099
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
At the heart of constitutional interpretation is the struggle between, on the one hand, fidelity to founding meanings, and, on the other hand, creative interpretation to suit the context and needs of an evolving society. This book considers the recent growth of constitutional cases in Singapore in the last ten years. It examines the underpinnings of Singapore’s constitutional system, explores how Singapore courts have dealt with issues related to rights and power, and sets developments in Singapore in the wider context of new thinking and constitutional developments worldwide. It argues that Singapore is witnessing a shift in legal and political culture as both judges and citizens display an increasing willingness to engage with constitutional ideas and norms.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317428099
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
At the heart of constitutional interpretation is the struggle between, on the one hand, fidelity to founding meanings, and, on the other hand, creative interpretation to suit the context and needs of an evolving society. This book considers the recent growth of constitutional cases in Singapore in the last ten years. It examines the underpinnings of Singapore’s constitutional system, explores how Singapore courts have dealt with issues related to rights and power, and sets developments in Singapore in the wider context of new thinking and constitutional developments worldwide. It argues that Singapore is witnessing a shift in legal and political culture as both judges and citizens display an increasing willingness to engage with constitutional ideas and norms.
Constitutional Amendments
Author: Richard Albert
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190640499
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions is both a roadmap for navigating the intellectual universe of constitutional amendments and a blueprint for building and improving the rules of constitutional change. Drawing from dozens of constitutions in every region of the world, this book blends theory with practice to answer two all-important questions: what is an amendment and how should constitutional designers structure the procedures of constitutional change? The first matters now more than ever. Reformers are exploiting the rules of constitutional amendment, testing the limits of legal constraint, undermining the norms of democratic government, and flouting the constitution as written to create entirely new constitutions that masquerade as ordinary amendments. The second question is central to the performance and endurance of constitutions. Constitutional designers today have virtually no resources to guide them in constructing the rules of amendment, and scholars do not have a clear portrait of the significance of amendment rules in the project of constitutionalism. This book shows that no part of a constitution is more important than the procedures we use change it. Amendment rules open a window into the soul of a constitution, exposing its deepest vulnerabilities and revealing its greatest strengths. The codification of amendment rules often at the end of the text proves that last is not always least.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190640499
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions is both a roadmap for navigating the intellectual universe of constitutional amendments and a blueprint for building and improving the rules of constitutional change. Drawing from dozens of constitutions in every region of the world, this book blends theory with practice to answer two all-important questions: what is an amendment and how should constitutional designers structure the procedures of constitutional change? The first matters now more than ever. Reformers are exploiting the rules of constitutional amendment, testing the limits of legal constraint, undermining the norms of democratic government, and flouting the constitution as written to create entirely new constitutions that masquerade as ordinary amendments. The second question is central to the performance and endurance of constitutions. Constitutional designers today have virtually no resources to guide them in constructing the rules of amendment, and scholars do not have a clear portrait of the significance of amendment rules in the project of constitutionalism. This book shows that no part of a constitution is more important than the procedures we use change it. Amendment rules open a window into the soul of a constitution, exposing its deepest vulnerabilities and revealing its greatest strengths. The codification of amendment rules often at the end of the text proves that last is not always least.
Designing a Polity
Author: James W. Ceaser
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442207922
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
In Designing a Polity, James W. Ceaser, one of our leading scholars of American political development, argues for the continuing central role of the Founding within the study of American government. Drawing on essays published over the past 10 years, extensively updated and revised to reflect current politics, Ceaser engages the Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison, emphasizes Alexis de Tocqueville as a model of political inquiry, critiques current and recent theorists such as Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida, and explores the varieties of contemporary conservative thought. Designing a Polity offers a rich exploration of the core values of political sciences that will be of special interest to scholars and students of American political development, Constitutional thought, and contemporary political thought.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442207922
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
In Designing a Polity, James W. Ceaser, one of our leading scholars of American political development, argues for the continuing central role of the Founding within the study of American government. Drawing on essays published over the past 10 years, extensively updated and revised to reflect current politics, Ceaser engages the Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison, emphasizes Alexis de Tocqueville as a model of political inquiry, critiques current and recent theorists such as Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida, and explores the varieties of contemporary conservative thought. Designing a Polity offers a rich exploration of the core values of political sciences that will be of special interest to scholars and students of American political development, Constitutional thought, and contemporary political thought.
Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments
Author: Yaniv Roznai
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198768796
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Can constitutional amendments be unconstitutional? Using theoretical and comparative approaches, Roznai establishes the nature and scope of constitutional amendment powers by focusing on substantive limitations, looking at their prevalence in practice and the conceptual coherence of the very idea of limitations to constitutional amendment powers.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198768796
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Can constitutional amendments be unconstitutional? Using theoretical and comparative approaches, Roznai establishes the nature and scope of constitutional amendment powers by focusing on substantive limitations, looking at their prevalence in practice and the conceptual coherence of the very idea of limitations to constitutional amendment powers.
Constitutional Government and Democracy
Author: Carl Joachim Friedrich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Constitutional History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Dimensions of Dignity
Author: Jacob Weinrib
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107084288
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
Offers a public law theory that elaborates the idea of human dignity to illuminate and justify innovations in constitutional practice.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107084288
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
Offers a public law theory that elaborates the idea of human dignity to illuminate and justify innovations in constitutional practice.
Is NAFTA Constitutional?
Author: Bruce A. Ackerman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
Bruce Ackerman and David Golove tell the story of how the Treaty Clause was displaced in the twentieth century by a modern procedure in which the House of Representatives joins the Senate in the process of consideration, and simple majorities in both Houses suffice to commit the nation. This is called the Congressional-Executive Agreement, and is a response to a seachange in public opinion during and after World War II. As American troops swept through Europe, Americans at home were anxiously remembering the Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. Would America once again win the war only to lose the peace? Rather than formally amending the Treaty Clause to strip a Senate minority of its veto power, political leaders of the 1940s developed the Congressional-Executive Agreement as an alternative to the classical treaty. But is such a fundamental change valid without a formal constitutional amendment? Challenging readers to rethink their understanding of the nature of constitutional change, this book vindicates the Congressional-Executive Agreement. In doing so, it not only establishes the validity of NAFTA and other recent initiatives like the World Trade Organization, but also establishes the constitutional framework for the democratic control of American diplomacy in the years ahead.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
Bruce Ackerman and David Golove tell the story of how the Treaty Clause was displaced in the twentieth century by a modern procedure in which the House of Representatives joins the Senate in the process of consideration, and simple majorities in both Houses suffice to commit the nation. This is called the Congressional-Executive Agreement, and is a response to a seachange in public opinion during and after World War II. As American troops swept through Europe, Americans at home were anxiously remembering the Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. Would America once again win the war only to lose the peace? Rather than formally amending the Treaty Clause to strip a Senate minority of its veto power, political leaders of the 1940s developed the Congressional-Executive Agreement as an alternative to the classical treaty. But is such a fundamental change valid without a formal constitutional amendment? Challenging readers to rethink their understanding of the nature of constitutional change, this book vindicates the Congressional-Executive Agreement. In doing so, it not only establishes the validity of NAFTA and other recent initiatives like the World Trade Organization, but also establishes the constitutional framework for the democratic control of American diplomacy in the years ahead.
Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil
Author: Mark A. Graber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139457071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil , first published in 2006, concerns what is entailed by pledging allegiance to a constitutional text and tradition saturated with concessions to evil. The Constitution of the United States was originally understood as an effort to mediate controversies between persons who disputed fundamental values, and did not offer a vision of the good society. In order to form a 'more perfect union' with slaveholders, late-eighteenth-century citizens fashioned a constitution that plainly compelled some injustices and was silent or ambiguous on other questions of fundamental right. This constitutional relationship could survive only as long as a bisectional consensus was required to resolve all constitutional questions not settled in 1787. Dred Scott challenges persons committed to human freedom to determine whether antislavery northerners should have provided more accommodations for slavery than were constitutionally strictly necessary or risked the enormous destruction of life and property that preceded Lincoln's new birth of freedom.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139457071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil , first published in 2006, concerns what is entailed by pledging allegiance to a constitutional text and tradition saturated with concessions to evil. The Constitution of the United States was originally understood as an effort to mediate controversies between persons who disputed fundamental values, and did not offer a vision of the good society. In order to form a 'more perfect union' with slaveholders, late-eighteenth-century citizens fashioned a constitution that plainly compelled some injustices and was silent or ambiguous on other questions of fundamental right. This constitutional relationship could survive only as long as a bisectional consensus was required to resolve all constitutional questions not settled in 1787. Dred Scott challenges persons committed to human freedom to determine whether antislavery northerners should have provided more accommodations for slavery than were constitutionally strictly necessary or risked the enormous destruction of life and property that preceded Lincoln's new birth of freedom.
Our Undemocratic Constitution
Author: Sanford Levinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195365577
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
Levinson here argues that too many of our Constitution's provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Worse, our Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update in the world. Levinson boldly challenges the Americans to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195365577
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
Levinson here argues that too many of our Constitution's provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Worse, our Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update in the world. Levinson boldly challenges the Americans to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values.