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Full-Text Articles in Law
Finding The Constitution: An Economic Analysis Of Tradition's Role In Constitutional Interpretation, Adam C. Pritchard, Todd J. Zywicki
Finding The Constitution: An Economic Analysis Of Tradition's Role In Constitutional Interpretation, Adam C. Pritchard, Todd J. Zywicki
Articles
In this Article, Professor Pritchard and Professor Zywicki examine the role of tradition in constitutional interpretation, a topic that has received significant attention in recent years. After outlining the current debate over the use of tradition, the authors discuss the efficiency purposes of constitutionalism--precommitment and the reduction of agency costs--and demonstrate how the use of tradition in constitutional interpretation can serve these purposes. Rejecting both Justice Scalia's majoritarian model, which focuses on legislative sources of tradition, and Justice Souter's common-law model, which focuses on Supreme Court precedent as a source of tradition, the authors propose an alternative model--the "finding model"-- …
Constitutions And Spontaneous Orders: A Response To Professor Mcginnis, Adam C. Pritchard, Todd J. Zywicki
Constitutions And Spontaneous Orders: A Response To Professor Mcginnis, Adam C. Pritchard, Todd J. Zywicki
Articles
Professor John McGinnis has written a perceptive and provocative comment on our economic analysis of the role of tradition in constitutional interpretation.1 A brief summary of our areas of agreement and disagreement may help set the stage for this response. It appears that Professor McGinnis substantially agrees with the two central propositions of our article. First, he appears to agree with our definition of efficient traditions as those evolving over long periods of time from decentralized processes.2 Second, he explicitly agrees that Justices Scalia and Souter have adopted sub-optimal models of tradition because they rely on sources that lack the …
Article V: The Comatose Article Of Our Living Constitution?, Robert G. Dixon Jr.
Article V: The Comatose Article Of Our Living Constitution?, Robert G. Dixon Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Capacity for steady--even startling-development and relative incapacity for formal change, are twin features of American constitutionalism often noticed but seldom analyzed conjointly. Even the most stalwart supporters of the status quo do not want an unamendable Constitution, but disagreement as to how change should be effected, and the scope of it, runs deep. Indeed, this is the central problem of Marbury v. Madison. That case was the effective innovator of judicial review, our "real" system for developmental constitutionalism. Interestingly, it also was one of the quite rare instances when a seemingly simple constitutional text was at issue (scope of Supreme …
The Alternative Amendment Process: Some Observations, Paul G. Kauper
The Alternative Amendment Process: Some Observations, Paul G. Kauper
Michigan Law Review
The alternative method of formal amendment of the Constitution raises unresolved questions of interpretation. As a contribution to the formulation of procedures for the implementation of this method Senator Ervin has introduced a bill dealing with the matter in considerable detail. In dealing with the subject I propose to discuss not only the convention procedure provided in article V, and in this connection point up some considerations respecting Senator Ervin's bill, but also some basic questions relating to the formal amendment process and the role assumed by the Supreme Court in the process of constitutional change.
Disadvantages Of A Federal Constitutional Convention, Ralph M. Carson
Disadvantages Of A Federal Constitutional Convention, Ralph M. Carson
Michigan Law Review
Article V says that on application of two-thirds of the states Congress "shall" call the convention for proposing amendments. The imperative color of this word cannot be disregarded. It leaves no discretion in Congress as to the convening of an article V assembly, although it may be consistent with some control by Congress over the modalities. A deliberate refusal on the part of Congress to call a convention, once the requisite number of state applications were in hand, may be expected, by enlarged analogy to what has been done in the recent civil rights cases and what is being proposed …
The Dirksen Amendment And The Article V Convention Process, Arthur Earl Bonfield
The Dirksen Amendment And The Article V Convention Process, Arthur Earl Bonfield
Michigan Law Review
This article will concentrate on the legal issues facing Congress in the current effort to call a constitutional convention. Because all of the previous amendments to the Constitution were proposed to the states by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, the issues raised in the present situation have never been resolved. The appropriate course of action for the national legislature is especially in doubt. An attempt will therefore be made here to focus on proper decision-making by Congress in resolving these constitutional issues. The role of the judiciary will be considered only incidentally, since, as will be seen, …
Along The Midway: Some Thoughts On Democratic Constitution-Amending, Clifton Mccleskey
Along The Midway: Some Thoughts On Democratic Constitution-Amending, Clifton Mccleskey
Michigan Law Review
In the American political circus there is apt to be going on at any given time a number of sideshows pretty much unrelated to the action under the Big Top. Essentially harmless and perhaps even functional for the system, they include the activities of the anti-vivisectionists, campaigns to impeach the Chief Justice, and the fratricidal spasms of various Marxist-oriented splinter movements. Among these sideshows, however, one has been distinguished by its perennial character and by the attention given to it by otherwise sober and restrained persons. I refer to the attempt through state legislative petitions to get Congress to call …
Proposed Legislation To Implement The Convention Method Of Amending The Constitution, Sam J. Ervin Jr.
Proposed Legislation To Implement The Convention Method Of Amending The Constitution, Sam J. Ervin Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Article V of the Constitution of the United States provides that constitutional amendments may be proposed in either of two ways--by two-thirds of both houses of the Congress or by a convention called by the Congress in response to the applications of two-thirds of the state legislatures. Although the framers of the Constitution evidently contemplated that the two methods of initiating amendments would operate as parallel procedures, neither superior to the other, this has not been the case historically. Each of the twenty-five constitutional amendments ratified to date was proposed by the Congress under the first alternative. As a result, …
Intrinsic Limitations On The Power Of Constitutional Amendment, George D. Skinner
Intrinsic Limitations On The Power Of Constitutional Amendment, George D. Skinner
Michigan Law Review
Just as the war has educated the public in geography, so the question of amending the organic law of the country has stimulated discussion concerning our own legal and political institutions. The amendments providing for the direct election of senators and for federal power to levy an income tax attracted little attention compared with the sudden interest in legal questions which the so-called prohibition amendment has aroused, for it touches upon a matter of very intimate personal concern to many people and one over which very heated controversies have raged. Matters involving, or which are made to involve, moral issues …