Legal History Commons^™

Means, Ends And Original Intent: A Response To Charles Cooper, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

Charles Cooper believes that the ninth amendment should be read at once more broadly and more narrowly than it is today. In his view, the intent of the Framers was to cabin the power of the federal government. By taking note in the ninth amendment of rights other than those enumerated in the first eight, they sought to ensure that the national government would not exercise powers beyond those listed in the Constitution. Since the aim of the ninth amendment was to keep the federal government one of limited power, it is inappropriate to apply the amendment to the states, …

The Illegality Of The Constitution, Richard Kay

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

American Indians And The Bicentennial, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Law And The Experience Of Politics In Late Eighteenth-Century North Carolina: North Carolina Considers The Constitution, Walter F. Pratt

Journal Articles

In 1788, delegates assembled in North Carolina to decide whether to ratify the Constitution. A debate erupted between Federalists and Anti-federalists regarding each Article of the then-drafted Constitution. This Article analyzes the debate, and proposes that the key difference was the function of the role of the law.

Notes On A Bicentennial Constitution: Part Ii, Antinomial Choices And The Role Of The Supreme Court, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

Continuing the examination of judicial review conducted around the Constitution’s bicentennial, this article lays bare the inconsistencies in the expected tasks of the Supreme Court. Where some roles of the Court have traditionally been treated as indivisible, examining those same roles separate from one another produces an incoherent view of the Court that is difficult to compromise.

On The Constitutional Status Of The Administrative Agencies, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

Alternative Career Resolution: An Essay On The Removal Of Federal Judges, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Taking Liberties: Privacy, Private Choice, And Social Contract Theory, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constructing A Constitution: 'Orginal Intention' In The Slave Cases, James Boyd White

Other Publications

The question how our Constitution is to be interpreted is a living one for us today, both in the scholarly and in the political domains. Professors argue about "interpretivism" and "originalism" in law journals, they study hermeneutics and deconstruction to determine whether or not interpretation is possible at all, and if so on what premises, and they struggle to create theories that will tell us both what we do in fact and what we ought to do. Politicians and public figures (including Attorney General Edwin Meese) talk in the newspapers and elsewhere about the authority of the "original intention of …

Adjudication Is Not Interpretation: Some Reservations About The Law-As-Literature Movement, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Among other achievements, the modern law-as-literature movement has prompted increasing numbers of legal scholars to embrace the claim that adjudication is interpretation, and more specifically, that constitutional adjudication is interpretation of the Constitution. That adjudication is interpretation -- that an adjudicative act is an interpretive act -- more than any other central commitment, unifies the otherwise diverse strands of the legal and constitutional theory of the late twentieth century.

In this article, I will argue in this article against both modern forms of interpretivism. The analogue of law to literature, on which much of modern interpretivism is based, although fruitful, …