Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional AmendmentSanford Levinson 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. |
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... constitutional amendment at the constitutional convention in Philadel- phia with a forthright statement that " the ... American Constitution : A Documentary History ( New York : Penguin Books , 1986 ) , p . 83 . 3 The Fundamental ...
... American constitutional theory , manifested originally in the drafting of state constitutions , that the " rules of government " would be decidedly " alterable " through a stipu- lated legal process . Indeed , Gordon Wood has described ...
... Constitution can be changed. Is it also the way? Or are there alterna- tive means of achieving fundamental change within the American con- stitutional system? As a descriptive matter, can one possibly understand the changes that have ...
... constitutional possibility, Akhil Reed Amar also presses the case that Article V is by no means ex- clusive. Instead ... American constitutionalism, but I think there are also important differ- ences, one of which is the purported ...
... American constitutional system? It was the very possibility that Article V was reducible to only its procedural ... constitutional change be teased out of other parts of the Constitution or out of the basic notion of ...
Other editions - View all
Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment Sanford Levinson No preview available - 1995 |
Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment Sanford Levinson No preview available - 1995 |