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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Stories Of Origin And Constitutional Possibilities, Milner S. Ball
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 …