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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... Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of ...
... legislature prior to popular ratification. The court pronounced one section of the proposition just such a “revision”— presumably substantially more transformative than a mere “amendment”—and therefore invalidated it, given its origin ...
... legislatures—are not in fact all equal. Those amendments that are truly transformative of the established political order, Harris argues, should require, in order to be legitimate, running the gauntlet of either a national convention or ...
... legislature to be able to meet the threat to economic stability posed by the Great Depression; ordinary interpretation sufficed to supply the needed authority. It should be obvious, though, that one could describe the result in ...
... legislature of this country and of all the states to stand up and say, “we know what that history [of denying rights to women] was in the 19th century, and we want to make a clarion call that women and men are equal before the law, just ...
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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 |