San Antonio College Library

Until now legal experts have proposed two basic approaches to the Constitution. The first, "interpretivism," maintains that we should stick as closely as possible to what is explicit in the document itself. The second, predominant in recent academic theorizing, argues that the courts should be guided by what they see as the fundamental values of American society. Mr. Ely demonstrates that both of these approaches are inherently incomplete and inadequate....

"The frontier between 'law' and 'politics' is not always clear-cut. A large area exists where courts operate, but governments and parliaments also make decisions. Tim Koopmans compares the way American, British, French and German law and politics deal with different issues: in many instances subjects which are highly 'political' in one country constitute legal issues in another. Is there, for example a 'sovereign Parliament' (as there is in Britain),...

The Constitution Besieged offers a compelling reinterpretation of one of the most notorious periods in American constitutional history. In the decades following the Civil War, federal and state judges struck down as unconstitutional a great deal of innovative social and economic legislation. Scholars have traditionally viewed this as the work of a conservative judiciary more interested in promoting laissez-faire economics than in interpreting the...