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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... ratification conventions of the thirteen states, George Washington expressed importantly similar sentiments in a letter to his nephew, Bushrod Washington (who would be appointed by John Adams to the U.S. Supreme Court). “The warmest ...
... ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made ...
... ratified by 1791, and they, of course, are now known as the Bill of Rights. Nonetheless, states sporadically ratified the original second amendment, and in 1992 Michigan became the thirty-eighth state to ratify it. Given a union of ...
... ratified in 1788. If one agrees, as do Ackerman and Griffin, that there are additional amendments beyond these numbered textual additions—consider, for example, “Congress may pass any regulation it believes conducive to the national ...
... ratified 1994), p. 133, n.1. Edelman offers an extensive discussion of Israel's struggle over a written constitution at pages 6–30, as does Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn in Apples of Gold: Constitutionalism in Israel and the United States ...
Other editions - View all
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 |