Law Commons^™

Securing Deliberative Autonomy, James E. Fleming

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Fleming proposes to tether the right of autonomy by grounding it within a constitutional constructivism, a guidingframeworkfor constitutional theory with two fundamental themes: deliberative democracy and deliberative autonomy. He advances deliberative autonomy as a unifying theme that shows the coherence and structure of certain substantive liberties on a list of familiar "unenumerated" fundamental rights (commonly classed under privacy, autonomy, or substantive due process). The bedrock structure of deliberative autonomy secures basic liberties that are significant preconditions for persons' ability to deliberate about and make certain fundamental decisions affecting their destiny, identity, or way of life. As …