Search Results

The American Revolution was a radical event that redefined ideas of sovereignty, liberty, equality, representation, and power. It also recast how men and women related to each other within and outside of government. As its political expression, the Constitution was the revolutionary answer to an age-old antagonism in Western culture between power and liberty. ‘The revolutionary Constitution’ describes the processes involved in the drafting of the Constitution, its ratification, and the creation of the new national government structure, including the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. It outlines the key stages in the Constitution’s construction such as the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 and the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. ...Less

More than most constitutional issues, questions of representation and suffrage have exposed the fault lines of class, race, and gender in American society. Popular sovereignty was the touchstone of republican liberty, but only grudgingly did rulers admit the ruled into their circle. The world-view of the framers had no room for women, blacks, Indians, or the poor as citizens worthy of the ballot. It took a series of constitutional amendments, all spurred by war or mass movements, to expand the electorate and redefine “we the people” to include all adult citizens as rulers. ‘Representation’ describes the various Amendments to the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that have reshaped what representation means. ...Less

‘Rights of property and their regulation’ illustrates that the law of property was at the centre of early American society and governance. By the early nineteenth century, two ideas about property were coexisting in property rights cases: firstly, that rights of property were inherent in American citizenship and held against state regulation, and secondly, that the police power of the state could regulate property to promote public health, safety, or morals. The legal history of property rights in America has been shaped by the interplay between these searches for profitable uses of private property and governmental efforts to ensure that an appropriate share of the resulting profits are put to beneficial public use. ...Less

The Introduction outlines the questions that this VSI attempts to answer. Why does the EU arouse such strong passions? As an organization based on international treaties, why has it proved capable of having such far-reaching effects on its Member States and their citizens and on countries that lie beyond its borders? Part of the explanation lies in its law and legal system, which have proved remarkably effective in ensuring that Member States respect the commitments made when they signed those treaties. But what exactly is EU law about? And how has it become part of the legal DNA of its Member States so much more effectively than other treaty-based regimes? ...Less

Federalism, the division of power between state and central governments, was the most novel doctrine to emerge from the Constitutional Convention. ‘Federalism’ explains how it embraced a contradiction, imperium in imperio, a sovereignty within a sovereignty. This logical inconsistency—classical theory assumed that governmental sovereignty was indivisible—could be explained only by another innovation, popular sovereignty, which vested ultimate power in the people. Federalism has proven to be a highly malleable scheme for accommodating the demands of a diverse society and a dynamic economy. What began in 1787 as a partnership of equal governments became a powerful national government two centuries later, with widespread authority to safeguard (or threaten) liberty for its citizens. ...Less

Equality was not an explicit core value of the Constitution, nor was it a basic condition of republican governments. The framers, living in a world based on class distinctions, rejected hereditary aristocracy, but casually accepted the idea of a natural aristocracy based on merit. Political equality was an animating force of the Revolution, although this condition applied primarily to white, property-owning men. ‘Equality’ outlines the three Amendments adopted between 1865 and 1870 that ended slavery, made state citizenship a consequence of national citizenship, and designated African-American men as political equals. It also describes the women’s movement of the 1920s, the aftermath of World War II, and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. ...Less

Throughout American history, rights have been invented and repudiated, fought over and striven for, expanded and violated. From the nation’s beginnings, revolutionaries appealed to natural rights, but the question often became which rights and for whom? ‘Rights’ explains that what is most striking about the conflict over rights has been its democratic character. Rights are always a matter of public debate about the proper balance between order and liberty. It is a conversation that engaged the framers of the Constitution, and, as has been the case with each successive generation, Americans are continually working out the boundaries of what individual liberties are essential for a just and free society. ...Less