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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... arguments made in this paragraph . 7 I am well aware that this distinction between substance and procedure can easily ( and often properly ) be “ deconstructed . ” It is , however , a distinction that we in fact cannot do without , as a ...
... arguments made by Ackerman and Amar and makes the case for the exclusivity of Article V. Frederick Schauer, in turn, argues that it is a fundamental category error to look to the Constitution (or any constitution) to provide criteria ...
... argument about the inadvisability of making constitutional amend- ment too difficult. These essays are certainly not intended to serve as the last word on the extraordinarily important issues that they raise. My hope is that they will ...
... argument before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Brown v . Board of Education , however surprising it might have been to the actual proponents of the Fourteenth Amendment , was perfectly consistent with what he has termed the " only ...
... argument to the First Congress , while attacking the legitimacy of chartering the first Bank of the United States , that the Constitution must be interpreted within an ideological frame- work that accepts as " the essential ...
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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 |