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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... legitimate, with a legal integrity equal to those (other) amendments that have followed the route set out by Article V. Ackerman especially is insistent that such a narrative is available, and he sketches its outlines in his essay. We ...
... legitimate approach to constitu- tional interpretation.4 What Bork and other " originalists " object to is not the fact of organic development as such , including the surprises sometimes presented by the fragile child who turns out to ...
... legitimate, running the gauntlet of either a na- tional convention or state conventions.26 All of these distinctions merit more discussion. What follows, how- ever, will concentrate only on the difference between the clarification of ...
... legitimate . Though the opinion by Chief Justice Hughes is suffused with reference to the " emergency " facing the nation , he blandly insisted that " emergency does not create power " but provides only the " conditions " for exercising ...
... legitimate interpretation . Once this move is taken , then " ( a ) fewer than 26 " is clearly the best answer , certainly far more sophisticated theoretically than either " ( b ) " or " ( c ) . " But , after all , the central premise of ...
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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 |