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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... (1980): 875; Laurence Tribe, “A Constitution We Are Amending: In Defense of a Restrained Judicial Role,” Harvard Law Review 97 (1983): 433. 10My enumeration of the seven countries—Israel, New Zealand, Oman, Qatar, 6 SANFORD LEVINSON.
... judicial “interpretation” and forbidden judicial “legislation.” See, for example, the opening statement of Utah Senator Orrin G. Hatch in the hearing on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he noted that ...
... judicial amendment has become commonplace” (p. 415, n. 3). See also the essay by Donald Lutz in this volume, where he argues, altogether plausibly, that a constitutional structure that makes formal amendment too difficult will ...
... judicial interpretation (or, for that matter, activity by the executive branch in the absence of explicit statutory authorization) and what sorts, on the other hand, would require the inventiveness of “amendment.” For example, given the ...
... an amendment been proposed to invite Queen Victoria or the Emperor Franz Josef to rule. 22 See Gene Nichol, “Constitutional Judgment,” Michigan Law Review 91 (1993): 1. It is, especially if the result of a judicial 19 ACCOUNTING FOR CHANGE.
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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 |