philosophical contributions

books:

The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review

10 reviews
Larry D. Kramer

Oxford University Press, USA, 2005

Junto Society thumbs up!
Larry D. Kramer has constructed a masterful work here that belongs in every American's library. When it comes to subjects like judicial review, many author's, themselves often constitutional attorneys, have a tendency to go out of their way to try to write "over the head" of the political novice. Not the case with Kramer's work. He writes in a succinct fashion that will be appreciated by both ...

Constitutionalism: Philosophical Foundations (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law)

Cambridge University Press, 2001

A distinguished international team of legal theorists examine the issue of constitutionalism and pose such foundational questions as: Why have a constitution? How do we know what the constitution of a country really is? How should a constitution be interpreted? The volume will be of particular importance to those in philosophy, law, political science and international relations interested in whether and what kinds of constitutions should be ...

American Constitutionalism

2 reviews
Stephen M. Griffin

Princeton University Press, 1998

A Thoughtful and Novel Approach to US Constitutional Law
This book is a brilliantly concise survey of contemporary constitutional analysis. Professor Griffin outlines the various camps of constitutional thought with remarkable clarity and very careful citation. Regardless of the depth of thought or difficulty of the subject matter, Professor Griffin lays out the positions of all sides in this unique and novel book. This book should find its way ...

Liberalism, Constitutionalism, and Democracy
Russell Hardin

Oxford University Press, USA, 2003

This groundbreaking book develops a new theory of constitutional democracy. Leading political philosopher Russell Hardin shows how social coordination rather than mutual advantage lies at the heart of liberal constitutionalism.

Constitutionalism and Dictatorship: Pinochet, the Junta, and the 1980 Constitution (Cambridge Studies in the ...
Robert Barros

Cambridge University Press, 2002

It is widely believed that autocratic regimes cannot limit their power through institutions of their own making. This book presents a surprising challenge to this view. It demonstrates that the Chilean armed forces were constrained by institutions of their own design. Based on extensive documentation of military decision-making, much of it long classified and unavailable, this book reconstructs the politics of institutions within the recent ...

The Paradox of Constitutionalism: Constituent Power and Constitutional Form

Oxford University Press, USA, 2007

This book sets out to examine some of the key features of what we describe as the paradox of constitutionalism: whether those who have the authority to make a constitution - the 'constituent power' - can do so without effectively surrendering that authority to the institutional sites of power 'constituted' by the constitutional form they enact. In particular, is the constituent power exhausted in the single constitutive act or does it retain a ...

The Origins of American Constitutionalism

1 review
Donald S. Lutz

Louisiana State University Press, 1988

One of the most important recent histories of the U.S. Constitution
In recent years, writers like Michael Zuckert have propounded a solution to the republican/liberalism debate by suggesting that liberalism is the core political philosophy to which the civic republican political science was adapted. Lutz' magnificent and pithy volume (about 170 pages of text)suggests that Zuckert and others may have it all wrong. That it was in fact the American colonial ...

Comparative Constitutionalism, Cases and Materials: Cases and Materials (American Casebook Series)
Michel Rosenfeld, Andras Sajo, ...

West Publishing Company, 2003

This law school casebook examines how the vast increase in international movements of people, capital, goods, ideas and information affect commercial relationships and the development of human rights. It contains examples from countries in all continents, examining the assumptions, choices, trade-offs and values that have formed the foundations of individual legal systems. Examples also illustrate how other constitutional democracies address ...

Constitutionalism And the Role of Parliaments (Studies of the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative ...

Hart Publishing, 2007

Modern constitutionalism has put a lot of hopes in parliaments but there is some consensus that these hopes have not been entirely fulfilled. At the same time, the role of parliaments in contemporary democracies continues to evolve as parliaments are faced with new challenges. How should they react to the new forms of executive and administrative action? Should they play a role in upholding judicial independence, although the latter is ...

Private Property and the Limits of American Constitutionalism: The Madisonian Framework and Its Legacy
Jennifer Nedelsky

University Of Chicago Press, 1994

The United States Constitution was designed to secure the rights of individuals and minorities from the tyranny of the majority?or was it? Jennifer Nedelsky's provocative study places this claim in an utterly new light, tracing its origins to the Framers' preoccupation with the protection of private property. She argues that this formative focus on property has shaped our institutions, our political system, and our very understanding of limited ...

Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (The Seeley Lectures)

2 reviews
James Tully

Cambridge University Press, 1995

Richly textured ... brilliant
One of the most compelling contributions to contemporary political philosophy to have emerged in the last few years. Anyone interested in the 'multinational' problem, or the burgeoning multiculturalism debate, will find this of particular interest. Tully tries neither to lead us to water, nor to compell us to drink. What he offers is a refreshing and poignant aperture through which we might ...

George Washington and American Constitutionalism (American Political Thought)

2 reviews
Glenn A. Phelps

University Press of Kansas, 1994

Short lucid presentation that fills a surprising void.
We tend to be too focused on the constitution as a document that is somehow frozen in time. We forget too often that as ratified it was very vague on any number of subjects as to how the various branches of government would work. We also too often assume that the way it broadly works now is the way it always worked. Hah! Recently, we have been blessed by work by scholars like David Currie and ...

CONSTITUTIONALISM: ANCIENT AND MODERN
CHARLES HOWARD MCILWAIN

Liberty Fund Inc., 2008

McIlwain, Charles Howard. Constitutionalism: Ancient and Modern. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1940. ix, 162 pp. Reprinted 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-550-8. ISBN-10: 1-58477-550-5. Cloth. $75. * Reprint of the first edition. Upon publication The Law Quarterly Review praised this book, noting that "great learning is manifest in these pages" (cited in Marke). McIlwain [1871-1968] examines of the rise of ...

Justice Curtis In The Civil War Era: At The Crossroads Of American Constitutionalism (Constitutionalism and ...
Stuart Streichler

University of Virginia Press, 2005

During a career as both a lawyer and a Supreme Court justice, Benjamin R. Curtis addressed practically every major constitutional question of the mid-nineteenth century, making judgments that still resonate in American law. Aside from a family memoir written by his brother over one hundred years ago, however, no book-length treatment of Curtis exists. Now Stuart Streichler has filled this gap in judicial biography, using Curtis's life and work ...

The Nature of Rights at the American Founding and Beyond (Constitutionalism and Democracy)

1 review

University of Virginia Press, 2007

A Gem of Legal History
This collection of essays by leading historians of the time surrounding America's founding is invaluable to anyone who is interested in understanding much of the terminology that was "in the air" during that period. Whether in pamphlets, sermons, bills of rights, constitutions, letters, or speeches the words used in the run-up to the colonies' split from Great Britain cannot be understood in ...

European Constitutionalism beyond the State

Cambridge University Press, 2003

Some of the most innovative scholars in the field of European constitutionalism highlight different facets of the new constitutional discussion. Provoking deep analysis of the different ideas of constitution and constitutionalism, their study delineates new ways of thinking about the future of Europe. In particular, it challenges the European Union as an evolving federal polity. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the subject of ...

The Divine Charter: Constitutionalism and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Mexico (Latin American Silhouettes)
Jaime E. Rodr'guez O.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007

Although Mexico began its national life in 1821 as one of the most liberal democracies in the world, it ended the century with an authoritarian regime. Examining this defining process, distinguished historians focus on the evolution of Mexican liberalism from the perspectives of politics, the military, the Church, and the economy. Based on extensive archival research, the chapters demonstrate that despite widely held assumptions liberalism was ...

Constitutionalism and Legal Reasoning (Law and Philosophy Library)
Massimo La Torre

Springer, 2007

This is a search of a model for a humane law - where the cruelty ban is still in force. This book however is not intended as an utopian enterprise; the humane law which is looked for is not for the future, nor is it meant as a reform project, or as a programme for new institutions to come. Here the contention is that positive law is better understood, if it is not too easily equated with power, force, or command. Law - it is shown - is more a ...

Constitutionalism: The Philosophical Dimension (Contributions in Legal Studies)

Greenwood Press, 1988

In our constitutional democracy, the dissent and conflict that are the inevitable consequence of free political dialogue point to the importance of reexamining the philosophical premises on which our conceptions of society and government are based. This volume of original essays reviews the foundations of constitutionalism in classical liberal thought and looks at contemporary philosophical perspectives on a wide range of constitutional issues. ...

Identity, Diversity And, Constitutionalism in Africa
Francis M. Deng

United States Institute of Peace Press, 2008

Since independence, African states have struggled under the burden of European models of governance. Hobbled by these alien frameworks, countries have limped from crisis to crisis, unable to establish their democratic legitimacy or to quell the secessionist demands of marginalized minorities. In this innovative and stimulating volume, Francis Deng outlines a new relationship between governments and societies a relationship informed by Western ...

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