Law Commons^™

A Concise Guide To The Records Of The State Ratifying Conventions As A Source Of The Original Meaning Of The U.S. Constitution, Gregory E. Maggs

Gregory E. Maggs

Thousands of articles and hundreds of cases have cited the records of the state ratifying conventions to support claims about the original meaning of the Constitution. Anyone reading these sources needs to know what records exist, why they might provide evidence of the original meaning of the Constitution, and what weaknesses claims about the original meaning which rest on them might have. Yet despite frequent references to the records of the state ratifying conventions, and despite the widely accepted importance of these records, I suspect that many lawyers, judges, law clerks, and legal scholars feel inadequately prepared to make or …

Assessing The Legality Of Counterterrorism Measures Without Characterizing Them As Law Enforcement Or Military Action, Gregory E. Maggs

Gregory E. Maggs

My Article is called: “Assessing the Legality of Counterterrorism Measures without Characterizing them as Law Enforcement or Military Action.” In this article, I develop three theses:

First, I claim that disagreements about the legality of counterterrorism measures commonly stem from disagreements about whether to characterize the measures as law enforcement efforts or as military actions. Observers who see the measures as methods of controlling crime assess their lawfulness differently from those who see them as a form of warfare against terrorists because criminal law enforcement rules differ substantially from the laws of war. With many specific examples, I show that …