Legal History Commons^™

An Originalism For Foreign Affairs, Ingrid Wuerth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Legal scholarship on foreign affairs frequently focuses on the Constitution's text and original meaning, but generally does not fully engage debates about originalism as a method of modern constitutional interpretation. For its part, much of the scholarship defending originalism as a methodology has said little explicitly about foreign affairs. This short symposium contribution describes three contemporary normative arguments in favor of originalism - those advanced by Randy Barnett, Keith Whittington, and John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport - and then considers their application to foreign affairs. It concludes that these arguments are at best underdeveloped and at worst weak when it …

The Dimension Of The Supreme Court, Paul H. Edelman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lawrence Sirovich introduced two novel mathematical techniques to study patterns in recent Supreme Court decisions. One of these methods, information theory, has never been applied previously. The other method, singular value decomposition, is closely related to other methods that have previously been employed.

In this paper I give an explication of these two methods and evaluate their use in the context of understanding the Supreme Court. I conclude that information theory holds some promise for furthering our understanding but singular value decomposition, as applied by Sirovich, is …

Timing And Delegation: A Reply, Jonathan R. Siegel

Vanderbilt Law Review

For two authors who come to such different conclusions, Professor Manning and I agree on a good deal. We agree that courts, in considering whether to consult legislative history in the course of statutory construction, must take heed of the special constitutional rule against congressional self-aggrandizement.' Thus, we agree that the Constitution forbids courts to give authoritative weight to post-enactment legislative history, because the effect of such a judicial practice is to permit Congress to delegate a very important power, the power to elaborate the meaning of statutes, to its committees or Members. We also agree, however, that Congress may, …

St. George Tucker, John Marshall,And Constitutionalism In The Post-Revolutionary South, Charles T. Cullen

Vanderbilt Law Review

A study of Marshall's early career suggests several reasons for constitutionalism fundamentally different from that of Tucker, a constitutionalism that became law in the early Republic because of Marshall's position on the Supreme Court. The writings and careers of southern constitutionalists like Tucker also merit further study in order to fully appreciate the growing divergence between the views originally expressed by him and those embraced by the nationalists, who decreased in number in the South after Marshall's time. Finally, we should develop a better understanding of the influence of southerners on the formation of legal and constitutional systems in other …

Book Reviews, Francis X. Beytagh, Jr., Robert L. Carter, William E. Miller, Judge

Vanderbilt Law Review

Books Reviewed:

The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress

by Alexander M. Bickel

New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Pp. xii, 210. $6.50.

Politics, the Constitution and the Warren Court

By Philip B. Kurland Chicago

University of Chicago Press, 1970. Pp. xxv, 222.$9.75.

Reviewer: Francis X. Beytagh, Jr.

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Books Reviewed:

Politics of Southern Equality: Law and Social Change in a Mississippi County

By Frederick M. Wirt

Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1970. Pp. 335. $10.00.

reviewer: Robert L. Carter

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The Apportionment Cases

By Richard C. Cortner Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1970. Pp. ix. 283. $10.00.

reviewer William …

Book Reviews, Robert J. Harris (Reviewer), John Raeburn Green (Reviewer), H. C. Nixon (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

----------------------------------- Book Reviews ----------------------------------

The Forgotten Ninth Amendment

By Bennett B. Patterson

Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1955. Pp. ix, 217. $4.00.

reviewer: Robert J. Harris

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The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791

By Robert Allen Rutland

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955. Pp. vii,243. $5.00.

reviewer: John Raeburn Green

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James Wilson: Founding Father, 1742-1798

By Charles Page Smith

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956. Pp. xii, 426.$7.50.

reviewer: H. C. Nixon