Rule of law and constitutionalist ideals are understood by many, if not most, as necessary to create a just political order. Defying the traditional division between normative and positive theoretical approaches, this book explores how political reality on the one hand, and constitutional ideals on the other, mutually inform and influence each other. Seventeen chapters from leading international scholars cover a diverse range of topics and case studies to test the hypothesis that the best normative theories, including those regarding the role of constitutions, constitutionalism and the rule of law, conceive of the ideal and the real as mutually regulating.
This is the untold story of the most celebrated part of the Constitution. Until the twentieth century, few Americans called the first ten constitutional amendments drafted by James Madison in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791 the Bill of Rights. Even more surprising, when people finally started doing so between the Spanish-American War and World War II, the Bill of Rights was usually invoked to justify increasing rather than restricting the authority of the federal government. President Franklin D. Roosevelt played a key role in that development, first by using the Bill of Rights to justify the expansion of national regulation under the New Deal, and then by transforming the Bill of Rights into a patriotic rallying cry against Nazi Germany. It was only after the Cold War began that the Bill of Rights took on its modern form as the most powerful symbol of the limits on government power. These are just some of the revelations about the Bill of Rights in Gerard Magliocca's The Heart of the Constitution. For example, we are accustomed to seeing the Bill of Rights at the end of the Constitution, but Madison wanted to put them in the middle of the document. Why was his plan rejected and what impact did that have on constitutional law? Today we also venerate the first ten amendments as the Bill of Rights, but many Supreme Court opinions say that only the first eight or first nine amendments. Why was that and why did that change? The Bill of Rights that emerges from Magliocca's fresh historical examination is a living text that means something different for each generation and reflects the great ideas of the Constitution--individual freedom, democracy, states' rights, judicial review, and national power in time of crisis.
Revised and updated second edition of the most comprehensive encyclopedia of America's founding convention. Now with nearly 400 new and updated entries and over 120 illustrations and maps, this revised and expanded edition of this impressive encyclopedia shows in detail the lively, contentious, four-month process that produced the United States Constitution. With fascinating detailed portraits of the Framers, we are taken behind the scenes into the fiery debates between powerful personalities and the hard-fought battles and compromises that resulted in one of the most important documents in history. Drawing on original sources and a wealth of secondary works and recent scholarship, updated entries and dozens of illuminating side boxes present a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the Constitutional Convention. Features include: - Two chronologies: day-to-day events at the Convention and important dates leading up to it - Detailed individual profiles of the delegates and excerpts from accounts of their debates - Information that brings the events of the Convention to life, such as the delegates' salaries, housing, daily schedule, how appointed, their backgrounds, their personal and legislative motivations, the mechanism of how the Convention and its committees worked - How the creation of states, their legislations, plans and constitutions all contributed to the final document - Analysis of Convention discussion of dominant historical and philosophical influences and themes and how and why they were included in the Constitution - A thorough appendix containing original documents and text of important speeches. - Suggested readings for each entry, cross-references, a topical table of contents, an up-to-date and thorough bibliography, index. These two volumes provide a complete guide to a pivotal moment in the formation of the United States - the Constitutional Convention - that created one of the most important documents in history, the United States Constitution. JOHN R. VILE (Ph.D., UVA) is Dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University. His recent books include The Writing and Ratification of the U.S. Constitution (2012); The Men Who Made the Constitution (2013); Re-Framers (2014); The Wisest Council in the World (2015); A Companion to the United States Constitution (6th ed. 2015); Founding Documents of America (2015); Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues (4th ed., 2015); and The Early Republic (2016).
A landmark work of more than one hundred scholars, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution is a unique line-by-line analysis explaining every clause of America's founding charter and its contemporary meaning. In this fully revised second edition, leading scholars in law, history, and public policy offer more than two hundred updated and incisive essays on every clause of the Constitution. From the stirring words of the Preamble to the Twenty-seventh Amendment, you will gain new insights into the ideas that made America, important debates that continue from our Founding, and the Constitution's true meaning for our nation
Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a world: the Constitution. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor. Decision in Philadelphia is the best popular history of the Constitutional Convention; in it, the life and times of eighteenth century America not only come alive, but the very human qualities of the men who framed the document are brought provocatively into focus—casting many of the Founding Fathers in a new light. A celebration of how and why our Constitution came into being, Decision in Philadelphia is also a testament of the American spirit at its finest.
