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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... Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. Article V raises a host of important questions. Consider only the following: 1. Can an ...
... clause 3, which, properly interpreted, might allow only regulation that Congress can reasonably believe contributes to the facilitation of a smoothly flowing and flourishing national economy); or “the President may declare limited war ...
... clause that does not say anything about separation. They wrote a clause that says “equal protection of the laws.” I think it may well be true . . . that they had an assumption which they did not enact, but they had an assumption that ...
... clause that said “we want equality and that can be achieved by separation and we want that too.” By 1954 it was perfectly apparent that you could not have both equality and separation. Now the court has to violate one aspect or the ...
... text.” Suber, The Paradox of Self-Amendment, p. 199. 32 Marshall could have, for example, stated that the necessary and proper clause required a determination by Congress that the bank was extremely important 22 SANFORD LEVINSON.
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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 |