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Full-Text Articles in Law
What Is A Twentieth-Century Constitution?, Peter E. Quint
What Is A Twentieth-Century Constitution?, Peter E. Quint
Faculty Scholarship
At present, almost all of the constitutions in the world are twentieth-century constitutions; indeed, most of them were not adopted until the second half of the twentieth century. Accordingly, the eighteenth-century Constitution of the United States -- which includes the original constitution of 1787-89; the first ten amendments, adopted in 1791; and the Eleventh Amendment, adopted in 1798 -- antedates most other constitutions of the world by at least 150 years. Using the eighteenth-century Constitution of the United States as a form of base-line (a method that may be parochial, but one that I think also has a lot to …
Constitution-Making: A Process Filled With Constraint, Donald L. Horowitz
Constitution-Making: A Process Filled With Constraint, Donald L. Horowitz
Faculty Scholarship
Constitutions are generally made by people with no previous experience in constitution making. The assistance they receive from outsiders is often less useful than it may appear. The most pertinent foreign experience may reside in distant countries, whose lessons are unknown or inaccessible. Moreover, although constitutions are intended to endure, they are often products of the particular crisis that forced their creation. Drafters are usually heavily affected by a desire to avoid repeating unpleasant historical experiences or to emulate what seem to be successful constitutional models. Theirs is a heavily constrained environment, made even more so by distrust and dissensus …
Planned Constitution Never Got Written, But Israel Still Got Constitutional Law, Marcia R. Gelpe
Planned Constitution Never Got Written, But Israel Still Got Constitutional Law, Marcia R. Gelpe
Faculty Scholarship
Israel's development of constitutional law without a written constitution presents a fascinating picture of how a system, unable to develop a constitution in the usual manner, has developed one in another manner. It shows how innovative lawmaking can be - and sometimes must be - to maintain a democratic political system.