Responding to Imperfection (ebook)

Argumento de Responding to Imperfection (ebook)

"Sanford Levinson has assembled a sparkling collection of essays on the theory of constitutional amendment. Responding to Imperfection belongs in the library of every student of the Constitution.... [An] enthusiastic thumbs-up for this provocative collection of essays.... [A] superb volume."--The Law and Politics Book Review

"[A] provocative collection of essays. . . . [A] superb volume."--The Law and Politics Book Review

"Constitutional scholars, teachers, and students will find this book an enormously useful resource. . . . It has all the virtues of a good collection--diversity and connectedness--and it is interesting and timely as well."--Jeremy Waldron, University of California, Berkeley

"Original and rigorous, this book is an important contribution to the fields of constitutional theory and jurisprudence, judicial politics, legal history, national and state constitutional law, and comparative law. Levinson has done a masterful job."--Ronald Kahn, Oberlin College

"Responding to Imperfection is a much-needed volume on the neglected topic of theories of constitutional amendment. . . . It is certain to become a standard reference work in constitutional theory."--Suzanna Sherry, University of Minnesota

"Sanford Levinson has given us a remarkable collection of penetrating essays on constitutional amendment by a real pleiad of first-rate legal scholars."--Walter Dean Burnham, The University of Texas at Austin0Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: Imperfection and Amendability 3 2 How Many Times Has the United States Constitution Been Amended? (A) < 26; (B) 26; (C) 27; (D) > 27: Accounting for Constitutional Change 13 3 Constitutionalism in the United States: From Theory to Politics 37 4 Higher Lawmaking 63 5 Popular Sovereignty and Constitutional Amendment 89 6 The Plain Meaning of Article V 117 7 Amending the Presuppositions of a Constitution 145 8 Merlin's Memory: The Past and Future Imperfect of the Once and Future Polity 163 9 The Case against Implicit Limits on the Constitutional Amending Process 191 10 The "Original" Thirteenth Amendment and the Limits to Formal Constitutional Change 215 11 Toward a Theory of Constitutional Amendment 237 12 The Politics of Constitutional Revision in Eastern Europe 275 13 Midrash: Amendment through the Molding of Meaning 307 Appendix: Amending Provisions of Selected New Constitutions in Eastern Europe 319 Contributors 325 Index 327