The Process of Constitutional Amendment: Law, History, and Politics

1986 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 16-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Dellinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Constitutional System

The first part of the seminar examined a mystery that reverberates through two centuries: how does a constitutional system of government, itself born of revolution, properly provide for its own revision — provide literally for its own reconstitution? We first considered the political and intellectual assumptions against which Article V of the United States Constitution — the amendment article — was drafted, and then looked briskly at the historical context in which the Constitution's twenty-six amendments have been adopted. With this as background, we addressed a range of issues concerning the law and policy of constitutional change that are currently the subject of lively dispute in America.

WHAT ARE CONSTITUTIONS, AND WHAT SHOULD (AND CAN) THEY DO?

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Alexander
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Principal Function ◽  
Fundamental Law

AbstractA constitution is, as Article VI of the United States Constitution declares, the fundamental law of the land, supreme as a legal matter over any other nonconstitutional law. But that almost banal statement raises a number of theoretically vexed issues. What is law? How is constitutional law to be distinguished from nonconstitutional law? How do morality and moral rights fit into the picture? And what are the implications of the answers to these questions for such questions as how and by whom should constitutions be interpreted? These are the issues that I shall address.Alexander proceeds as follows: In section I he takes up law's principal function of settling controversies over what we are morally obligated to do. In section II he then relate law's settlement function to the role of constitutional law. In particular, he discusses how constitutional law is distinguished from ordinary law, and he also discusses the role of constitutions in establishing basic governmental structures and enforcing certain moral rights. In section III he addresses the topic of constitutional interpretation, and in section IV the topic of judicial review. Finally, in section V, he discusses constitutional change, both change that occurs through a constitution's own rules for amendments and change that is the product of constitutional misinterpretations and revolutions.

Plus ça Change: The 1922 U.S. Congressional Debate on the Balfour Declaration

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Khaled Elgindy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Palestinian Arab ◽  
The U.S

This essay looks at the hearing held by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in April 1922 on the subject of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, as well as the broader congressional debate over the Balfour Declaration at that crucial time. The landmark hearing, which took place against the backdrop of growing unrest in Palestine and just prior to the League of Nations' formal approval of Britain's Mandate over Palestine, offers a glimpse into the cultural and political mindset underpinning U.S. support for the Zionist project at the time as well as the ways in which the political discourse in the United States has, or has not, changed since then. Despite the overwhelming support for the Zionist project in Congress, which unanimously endorsed Balfour in September 1922, the hearing examined all aspects of the issue and included a remarkably diverse array of viewpoints, including both anti-Zionist Jewish and Palestinian Arab voices.

Notes and Comments

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES C. GARAND ◽  
MARCI GLASCOCK LICHTL
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Growth Industry ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Media

In recent years the study of divided government has been a growth industry. Numerous scholars have sought to explain patterns of divided government in the United States, while others have attempted to explore the consequences of the phenomenon. No doubt this scholarly interest in the subject is due in large part to the attention paid by the political media to divided control of the presidency and Congress during the 1980s, as well as the resulting ’gridlock‘ that dominated policy making in Washington during that time period.

Nonconstitutional Amendments

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Albert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Perspective Drawing ◽  
Peculiar Phenomenon

The constitutional text in a constitutional democracy does not necessarily constrain constitutional change. Quite the contrary, constitutional change in a constitutional democracy often occurs in ways that depart from the rigid procedures governing constitutional amendment enshrined in the text of the constitutional.In this article, I illuminate this peculiar phenomenon in comparative perspective, drawing from the constitutional traditions of Canada, Germany, India, South Africa and the United States. In addition to illuminating distinctions in the amendment practices of liberal democratic constitutional states, I deploy those contrasts as a springboard to substantive insights about fundamental principles of statehood, namely sovereignty and legitimacy.

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Maslow Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1960S

This article discusses critical debate about individual control over the beginnings of life that has sprawled across the fields of academic law, philosophy, politics, religion, the life sciences, and the self-christened field of bioethics from the 1960s up to the present. The subject has formed in and around a cascade of popular pressures; biomedical advances; legislative, judicial, and public policy initiatives; media attention; and the boiling politics in which, at least in the United States, the whole series of enterprises has been bathed. The present undertaking will train on the law. It covers contraception in the United States, abortion law and policy in the United States, and contraception and abortion in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Exiliados de la Revolucióón mexicana: El caso de los villistas (1915––1921)

2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Lerner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Sobre Todo

As a result of the Mexican Revolution, many politicians from various factions were forced into exile between 1906 and 1940, particularly between 1910 and 1920. The subject has merited little attention until the present despite the fact that its study can provide another perspective on the Mexican Revolution, the one of the opponents who were defeated. This study focuses on the exile of the villistas that began in the autumn of 1915 and ended at the beginning of the 1920s. The article considers who were the villista exiles, how they escaped from Mexico, how they adapted economically in the United States, and when they returned to their country. It also examines certain political tendencies and their later activities between 1920 and 1940. Four political activities in the United States intended to change the political situation in Mexico are considered. Finally, the article examines how U.S. authorities, closely involved with their Mexican counterparts, treated the exiles. LaRevolucióón mexicanacausóó elexilio de muchos polííticos de distintas facciones entre 1906 y 1940, sobre todo entre 1910 y 1920. Este tema ha merecido muy pocaatencióón hasta elmomento presente,a pesarde que atravéés de éélpodemos aproximarnos desde otra perpectiva a la Revolucióón mexicana, desde el punto de vista de los opositores que muchas veces fueron los vencidos. Este estudio se centra en el exilio de los villistas que empezóó en el otoñño de 1915 y terminóó a principios de la déécada de 1920. En este artíículo se analiza quiéénes fueron los exiliados villistas, cóómo escaparon de Mééxico, su acomodo econóómico y laboral en Estados Unidos y el retorno a su patria, dejando ver ciertas tendencias polííticas de su actuacióónpolíítica ulterior entre 1920y 1940.Se desmenuzan cuatro actividades polííticas que emprendieron en Estados Unidos para cambiar la situacióón mexicana. Finalmente se abarca la forma en que fueron tratados durante su exilio en los Estados Unidos, por las autoridades de este paíís que estaban estrechamente vinculadas con las mexicanas.

scholarly journals Religion, Constitution, and Human Rights: An Overview of Muslim Life and Religious Freedom in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Suci Ramadhan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social

<p class="abstrak">The United States Constitution affirms that religious freedom is a fundamental human right regardless of religion. It is upheld by every citizen and the country. However, the political policies in a particular country are often considered to paralyze fundamental rights in religion, causing various problems in Muslim life at the social and political levels. This research aims to analyze the intersectional dynamic of religion, constitution, and Muslim human rights towards life and religious freedom in the United States. This qualitative research uses the lens of political approach. Primary data are taken from the United States Constitution and policies, and supported by secondary data from various books, scientific articles, and news. The results suggest that religious sentiment (Islam) is found in the political policies of the United States. Currently, unconstitutional and discriminative policies are gradually removed because it triggers the social and political chaos. The United States constitution strives towards a pluralist and multi-religious country rebuilding that is safe and peaceful for religion as guaranteed by the constitution. In fact, the public and political spaces have been occupied by many Muslims in an effort to resolve the problems of state and human rights, including the religious sentiment issues.</p>

Tragic Constitution: United States Democracy and Its Discontents

PMLA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-726
Author(s):  
Peter Lancelot Mallios
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Brazilian Theater

Tragedy is a recurrent subject in recent constitutional law scholarship. But this scholarship theorizes tragedy through a single narrow model, generally applies it to a limited conception of the domain of constitutional law, and ultimately conceives tragedy only as a liability rather than as a positive potentiality of constitutional practice. This essay critiques one theoretical understanding of tragedy and introduces three more, to argue for an open-ended praxis of pluralist tragic engagement with the United States Constitution that is necessary for the sober, mature, demystified, and deliberative functionality of the constitutional system. Each of these four models of tragedy is paired with a domain of constitutional law: Aristotle's model with interpretation, Hegel's with structure and institutions, the radical Brazilian theater director Augusto Boal's with performance and public effects, and Nietzsche's with cultural and educational accessibility.

The Age of Papandreou

Worldview ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Stephen Rousseas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Scene ◽  
Of Greece

Once upon a time there were two Papandreous—Papandreou plre and Papandreou fils—and one Caramanlis. Now there is only a Papandreou fils, Andreas.The last of these to depart the political scene, President Constantine Caramanlis, was the man who Queen Frederica and the United States had chosen over many more senior heads of the conservative Right for the premiership of Greece in 1955. Then a mere forty-eight, he reigned over an ultraconservative government that was at times severely repressive and not above rigging elections or making use of political thugs. Forced out by Frederica in 1963 amidst the scandal of the Lambrakis case—the subject of the highly successful film Z—Caramanlis went into selfimposed exile in Paris.

scholarly journals The Difficulty of Constitutional Amendment in Canada

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Albert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Constitutional Politics ◽  
Comparative Constitutional Law ◽  
Constitutional Conventions ◽  
Democratic Constitution

Scholars of comparative constitutional law would suggest that the United States Constitution is the world’s most difficult democratic constitution to change by formal amendment. This article suggests that the Constitution of Canada may be even harder to amend. Canadian constitutional politics have proven the textual requirements for major constitutional amendment so far impossible to satisfy. But the extraordinary difficulty of formal amendment in Canada derives equally from sources external to the text. Major constitutional amendment also requires conformity with extra-textual requirements imposed by Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Constitution of Canada, parliamentary and provincial as well as territorial statutes, and arguably also by constitutional conventions — additional rules that may well make major constitutional amendment impossible today in Canada. These as yet underappreciated extra-textual sources of formal amendment difficulty raise important questions for Canadian constitutionalism, namely whether in making the Constitution virtually impossible to amend they weaken democracy and undermine the purpose of writtenness.

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