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Stories Of Origin And Constitutional Possibilities, Milner S. Ball

Michigan Law Review

Robert Cover once observed how "[n]o set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning. For every constitution there is an epic, for each decalogue a scripture." Stories of origin locate law, invest it with legitimacy, and so lend it stability. As Cover went on to note, however, the narratives that legitimate a legal order also retain revolutionary force, for a return to the originating acts recounted in the narratives is always possible. A polity begun in revolution remains subject to revolution.

There is an American story of origins. It is …