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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... structure of Article V , that is , the basically procedural questions raised by recourse to the Article as. 8 See Dillon v . Gloss , 256 U.S. 358 , 374–75 ( 1921 ) . I discuss the issue further in San- ford Levinson , " Authorizing ...
... Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press, 1970). There are, no doubt, important similarities between structures of scien- tific thought and American constitutionalism, but I think there are also ...
... structures. He notes that for the states making up the United States, it has definitely been the exception, rather than the rule, to have been governed by a single constitution since the state's founding. Lutz's interest in structures ...
... structures to adopt in their transition from communism to some version (one hopes) of liberal democracy. Awareness of potential imperfection is at the heart of their own argument about the inadvisability of making constitutional amend ...
... structure and , on the other hand , outright muta- tion generated by exogenous causes . It is not the case , of course , that such changes cannot occur , but the argument is that , precisely because they are genuine transformations ...
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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 |