Interpreting Constitutions

Author : Jeffrey Goldsworthy
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2006-02-09
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780191021664

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Interpreting Constitutions by Jeffrey Goldsworthy Pdf

This book describes the constitutions of six major federations and how they have been interpreted by their highest courts, compares the interpretive methods and underlying principles that have guided the courts, and explores the reasons for major differences between these methods and principles. Among the interpretive methods discussed are textualism, purposivism, structuralism and originalism. Each of the six federations is the subject of a separate chapter written by a leading authority in the field: Jeffrey Goldsworthy (Australia), Peter Hogg (Canada), Donald Kommers (Germany), S.P. Sathe (India), Heinz Klug (South Africa), and Mark Tushnet (United States). Each chapter describes not only the interpretive methodology currently used by the courts, but the evolution of that methodology since the constitution was first enacted. The book also includes a concluding chapter which compares these methodologies, and attempts to explain variations by reference to different social, historical, institutional and political circumstances.

Author : Charles J. G. Sampford,Kim Preston
Publisher : Federation Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Law
ISBN : 1862872414

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Interpreting Constitutions by Charles J. G. Sampford,Kim Preston Pdf

Constitutions can be viewed as the road map of liberal democracies. And like any road map, they need to be constantly reconsidered and redrawn as the territory develops and changes. The contributors undertake this re-interpretation on a number of levels. They examine first the theoretical approaches to constitutional interpretation and then move on to implied rights. There then follows a consideration of the role of the judiciary and parliament in constitutional interpretation, drawing upon a number of examples from around the world.

Author : Jaroslav Pelikan
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2008-10-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780300130768

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Interpreting the Bible and the Constitution by Jaroslav Pelikan Pdf

Both the Bible and the Constitution have the status of “Great Code,” but each of these important texts is controversial as well as enigmatic. They are asked to speak to situations that their authors could not have anticipated on their own. In this book, one of our greatest religious historians brings his vast knowledge of the history of biblical interpretation to bear on the question of constitutional interpretation. Jaroslav Pelikan compares the methods by which the official interpreters of the Bible and the Constitution—the Christian Church and the Supreme Court, respectively—have approached the necessity of interpreting, and reinterpreting, their important texts. In spite of obvious differences, both texts require close, word-by-word exegesis, an awareness of opinions that have gone before, and a willingness to ask new questions of old codes, Pelikan observes. He probes for answers to the question of what makes something authentically “constitutional” or “biblical,” and he demonstrates how an understanding of either biblical interpretation or constitutional interpretation can illuminate the other in important ways.

Author : Ronald Dworkin
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 438 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780198265573

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Freedom's Law by Ronald Dworkin Pdf

Dworkin's important book is a collection of essays which discuss almost all of the great constitutional issues of the last two decades, including abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, homosexuality, pornography, and free speech. Dworkin offers a consistently liberal view of the Constitution and argues that fidelity to it and to law demands that judges make moral judgments. He proposes that we all interpret the abstract language of the Constitution by reference to moral principles about political decency and justice. His 'moral reading' therefore brings political morality into the heart of constitutional law. The various chapters of this book were first published separately; now drawn together they provide the reader with a rich, full-length treatment of Dworkin's general theory of law.

Author : Jeffrey Denys Goldsworthy
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2007-11-21
Category : Constitutional law
ISBN : 0195693604

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Interpreting Constitutions, by Jeffrey Denys Goldsworthy Pdf

Author : Kent Greenawalt
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 513 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780199756155

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Interpreting the Constitution by Kent Greenawalt Pdf

"Kent Greenawalt's Interpreting the Constitution combines a generalized account of the various approaches to interpretation with an examination of the major domains of American constitutional law. The third and capstone volume of his landmark series on legal interpretation, he utilizes numerous individual examples of decisions to illustrate his argument, which in combination demonstrate that his argument is undeniably in accord with the continuing practice of the United States Supreme Court over time. The book's central thesis is that strategies of constitutional interpretation cannot be simple and that judges must take account of multiple factors not systematically reducible to any clear ordering. For any constitution that lasts over centuries and which is hard to amend, original understanding cannot be completely determinative. To discern what that is, both how informed readers grasped a provision and what the enactors' aims were matter. Indeed, distinguishing these is usually extremely difficult, and often neither is really discernible. As time passes, what modern citizens understand becomes ever more important, diminishing the significance of original understanding. Simple versions of textualist originalism do not reflect changes in understanding over time and are therefore not really supportable. The focus on specific provision shows, among other things, the obstacles to discerning original understanding, and why the original sense of proper interpretation should itself carry importance. The scope of various provisions, such as those regarding free speech and cruel and unusual punishment, have expanded hugely since both 1791 and 1965. Even with respect to single provisions, such as the Free Speech Clause, interpretive approaches have sensibly varied, greatly depending on the particular issues at hand. How much deference judges should accord political actors also depends critically on the kind of issue involved. At once sweeping in scope and analytically powerful, this final volume cements Greenawalt's legacy as one of the leading legal scholars of this era"--Unedited summary from book jacket.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:248265417

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A Consolidation of the Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982 by Anonim Pdf

Author : Harry H. Wellington
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 1992-07-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0300056729

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Interpreting the Constitution by Harry H. Wellington Pdf

How does the Supreme Court work? Is there something undemocratic about having unelected judges overturn laws passed by elected legislators? How can a brief, two-hundred-year old constitution continue to provide the fundamental law for governing the United States? In this book a prominent legal scholar explores these questions with unusual clarity. Harry H. Wellington discusses judicial review (the process by which the court decides whether laws are valid) and the interpretive role the court plays in constitutional regulation and the resolution of individual disputes. Written in an engaging and accessible manner, the book offers fascinating examples of the court at work, in particular showing how it has addressed one of the most controversial political and judicial issues of our time--abortion. Harry H. Wellington takes a frank and provocative look at the process of adjudication, showing how it incorporates and shapes public values and mores as they change from one generation to the next. He explains why democracies can tolerate judicial review by nonelected officials and he refutes the politically popular doctrine of "original intent" and explains why those who interpret the Constitution must be responsive to precedent and process. Wellington also shows how the American political system allows the public to respond to the Court's decisions on such strongly debated issues as abortion. Although he argues for the retention of Roe v. Wade, Wellington points out that the Court makes mistakes, and he asserts that institutions, groups, and individuals sometimes have an obligation to contest the court's readings and its authority. This often noisy dialogue, says Wellington, is necessary to make judicial regulation compatible with the democratic ideology on which the United States is based.

Author : Laurence H. TRIBE,Michael C. Dorf,Laurence H Tribe
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2009-06-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780674044456

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On Reading the Constitution by Laurence H. TRIBE,Michael C. Dorf,Laurence H Tribe Pdf

Our Constitution speaks in general terms of liberty and property, of the privileges and immunities of citizens, and of the equal protection of the laws--open-ended phrases that seem to invite readers to reflect in them their own visions and agendas. Yet, recognizing that the Constitution cannot be merely what its interpreters wish it to be, this volume's authors draw on literary and mathematical analogies to explore how the fundamental charter of American government should be construed today.

Author : Stephen Breyer
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2007-12-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780307424617

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Active Liberty by Stephen Breyer Pdf

A brilliant new approach to the Constitution and courts of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.For Justice Breyer, the Constitution’s primary role is to preserve and encourage what he calls “active liberty”: citizen participation in shaping government and its laws. As this book argues, promoting active liberty requires judicial modesty and deference to Congress; it also means recognizing the changing needs and demands of the populace. Indeed, the Constitution’s lasting brilliance is that its principles may be adapted to cope with unanticipated situations, and Breyer makes a powerful case against treating it as a static guide intended for a world that is dead and gone. Using contemporary examples from federalism to privacy to affirmative action, this is a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the role and power of our courts.

Author : Ijaiya, Hakeem Olasunkanmi
Publisher : Malthouse Press
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2017-05-05
Category : Law
ISBN : 9789789584468

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Judicial Approach to Interpretation of Constitution by Ijaiya, Hakeem Olasunkanmi Pdf

This book, Judicial Approach to Interpretation of Constitution: A Study of Nigeria, Australia, Canada and India, is the outcome of a doctoral study of the judicial interpretation of the constitutions in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions, and a survey of the theories of constitutional interpretation and adjudication, the rules applied by the courts in the interpretation of the provisions of the constitutions, and determined the extent to which the existing approaches to the interpretation of the constitution have hindered the development of constitutional jurisprudence in those countries. In all, the statutes and constitutions are expressed in English language and some words are prone to distortions, thereby requiring the need for the courts to discover the intention of the legislators when interpreting such statutes and constitutions. It is further observed that the theories and rules of interpretation currently adopted by the courts are conflicting, and this is partly due to vagueness and also that in many cases, where a rule appears to support a particular interpretation, there is another rule, often of equal status, which can be invoked in favour of an interpretation which could lead to different result. The general conclusion is that the existing approaches to constitutional interpretation are somewhat inefficient and inadequate to enable the courts to effectively discover the intention of the legislators, and therefore the courts should be allowed to examine all relevant parliamentary documents and debates.

Author : Jeffrey Goldsworthy
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2006-02-09
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780191582448

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Interpreting Constitutions by Jeffrey Goldsworthy Pdf

This book describes the constitutions of six major federations and how they have been interpreted by their highest courts, compares the interpretive methods and underlying principles that have guided the courts, and explores the reasons for major differences between these methods and principles. Among the interpretive methods discussed are textualism, purposivism, structuralism and originalism. Each of the six federations is the subject of a separate chapter written by a leading authority in the field: Jeffrey Goldsworthy (Australia), Peter Hogg (Canada), Donald Kommers (Germany), S.P. Sathe (India), Heinz Klug (South Africa), and Mark Tushnet (United States). Each chapter describes not only the interpretive methodology currently used by the courts, but the evolution of that methodology since the constitution was first enacted. The book also includes a concluding chapter which compares these methodologies, and attempts to explain variations by reference to different social, historical, institutional and political circumstances.

Author : Charles A. Beard
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2012-03-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780486140452

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An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles A. Beard Pdf

This classic study — one of the most influential in the area of American economic history — questioned the founding fathers' motivations and prompted new perceptions of the supreme law of the land.

Author : Jackelyn Haggerty
Publisher : Nova Snova
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Constitutional law
ISBN : 1536141984

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Constitution by Jackelyn Haggerty Pdf

While exercising its power to review the constitutionality of governmental action, the Supreme Court has relied on certain methods or modes of interpretation that is, ways of figuring out a particular meaning of provision within the Constitution. The first chapter or report broadly describes the most common modes of constitutional interpretation. The next chapters herein examine the Speech or Debate Clause of the US Constitution; provides an overview of Congresss power under the Constitution and Congresss role in interpreting the nations founding document; and discusses contemporary issues for Congress with regards to Article V of the US Constitution, and the two methods by which the nations founding charter may be amended.

Author : Keith E. Whittington
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Social Science
ISBN : UOM:39076002012875

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Constitutional Interpretation by Keith E. Whittington Pdf

With its detailed and wide-ranging explorations in history, philosophy, and law, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in how the Constitution ought to be interpreted and what it means to live under a constitutional government."--BOOK JACKET.