In this premiere edition, Martin has written a substantive historical introduction situating the Earth Constitution within the world federalist movement of the past 80 years, an extensive commentary on the Constitution that explains the significance of its 19 articles, and a conclusion in which he discusses the larger meaning of the Constitution and the Earth Federation Movement.
In World State Nicholas Hagger followed Truman, Einstein, Churchill, Eisenhower and others in calling for a democratic, partly-federal World State with sufficient authority to abolish war, enforce disarmament, combat famine, disease and poverty, and solve the world’s financial and environmental problems. Its lower house, a World Parliamentary Assembly, would initially be based in the UN General Assembly and eventually replace the UN. In this companion volume he sets out a Constitution for a United Federation of the World (UF). In 14 chapters and 145 Articles he details the UF’s structure and institutions at inter-national and supranational levels, and the rights and freedoms world citizens would be guaranteed. He lists the 26 precedents and 204 existing constitutions he consulted (including the UN Charter and the US and EU constitutional documents) and the sources on which the Articles are based. This comprehensive and authoritative Constitution sets out with great clarity and concision how the whole world can be governed, and can be laid before the UN General Assembly. As a blueprint for a World State that can bring universal peace and prosperity it may come to be regarded as one of the most remarkable feats of statecraft of our time.
More than 50 years ago, Franklin Kury drafted and championed an Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, which was enacted on Earth Day 1970 and ratified by Pennsylvania's voters a year later. In the half century since then, climate change has become the overriding threat to the environment of the planet. In this book, Franklin Kury expands upon the story of Article I, Section 27, to demonstrate how its principles can be the basis for addressing climate change in the rest of the world. The story concludes with a call for the federal government's leadership to seek a national environmental rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a treaty to expand its reach to the international community.
Humanity faces a choice: Unite as one planet or perish. The Earth Constitution Solution saves what works at the U.N., provides a realistic plan for global democracy, and offers a glorious future for our living planet.
The right to a healthy environment has been the subject of extensive philosophical debates that revolve around the question: Should rights to clean air, water, and soil be entrenched in law? David Boyd answers this by moving beyond theoretical debates to measure the practical effects of enshrining the right in constitutions. His pioneering analysis of 193 constitutions and the laws and court decisions of more than 100 nations in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa reveals a positive correlation between constitutional protection and stronger environmental laws, smaller ecological footprints, superior environmental performance, and improved quality of life.
This book departs from the 'statist' imagination by suggesting the EU is a federal union of states, or a federation. Dedicated to the constitutional theory of federalism, this book gives the strengths and weaknesses of a federation as a political form, its histories, and current perils for the EU.
The Oxford Handbook of the European Union brings together numerous acknowledged specialists in their field to provide a comprehensive and clear assessment of the nature, evolution, workings, and impact of European integration.
The framers of the Constitution chose their words carefully when they wrote of a more perfect union--not absolutely perfect, but with room for improvement. Indeed, we no longer operate under the same Constitution as that ratified in 1788, or even the one completed by the Bill of Rights in 1791--because we are no longer the same nation. In The Revolutionary Constitution, David J. Bodenhamer provides a comprehensive new look at America's basic law, integrating the latest legal scholarship with historical context to highlight how it has evolved over time. The Constitution, he notes, was the product of the first modern revolution, and revolutions are, by definition, moments when the past shifts toward an unfamiliar future, one radically different from what was foreseen only a brief time earlier. In seeking to balance power and liberty, the framers established a structure that would allow future generations to continually readjust the scale. Bodenhamer explores this dynamic through seven major constitutional themes: federalism, balance of powers, property, representation, equality, rights, and security. With each, he takes a historical approach, following their changes over time. For example, the framers wrote multiple protections for property rights into the Constitution in response to actions by state governments after the Revolution. But twentieth-century courts--and Congress--redefined property rights through measures such as zoning and the designation of historical landmarks (diminishing their commercial value) in response to the needs of a modern economy. The framers anticipated just such a future reworking of their own compromises between liberty and power. With up-to-the-minute legal expertise and a broad grasp of the social and political context, this book is a tour de force of Constitutional history and analysis.
