| Description |
1 online resource |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| Contents |
Introduction : The politics of original intention -- The Constitution and the scholarly tradition : recovering the founders' constitution -- Nature and the language of law : Thomas Hobbes and the foundations of modern constitutionalism -- Language, law, and liberty : John Locke and the structures of modern constitutionalism -- The limits of natural law : modern constitutionalism and the science of interpretation -- The greatest improvement on political institutions : natural rights, the intentions of the people, and written constitutions -- Chains of the Constitution : Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the "political metaphysics" of strict construction -- The most sacred rule of interpretation : John Marshall, originalism, and the limits of judicial power -- The same yesterday, today, and forever : Joseph Story and the permanence of constitutional meaning -- Epilogue: The moral foundations of originalism. |
| Summary |
For much of its history, the interpretation of the United States Constitution presupposed judges seeking the meaning of the text and the original intentions behind that text, a process that was deemed by Chief Justice John Marshall to be 'the most sacred rule of interpretation'. Since the end of the nineteenth century, a radically new understanding has developed in which the moral intuition of the judges is allowed to supplant the Constitution's original meaning as the foundation of interpretation. The Founders' Constitution of fixed and permanent meaning has been replaced by the idea of a 'living' or evolving constitution. Gary L. McDowell refutes this new understanding, recovering the theoretical grounds of the original Constitution as understood by those who framed and ratified it. It was, he argues, the intention of the Founders that the judiciary must be bound by the original meaning of the Constitution when interpreting it. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Constitutional law -- United States.
|
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Constitutional law. |
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United States. |
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Law -- United States -- Language.
|
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Law. |
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Constitutional law.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
| Subject |
Law. |
| Other Form: |
Print version: McDowell, Gary L., 1949- Language of law and the foundations of American constitutionalism. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010 9780521192897 (DLC) 2009039190 (OCoLC)439903862 |
| ISBN |
9780511932557 (electronic book) |
|
0511932553 (electronic book) |
|
9780511922145 (electronic book) |
|
0511922140 (electronic book) |
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9780511852404 (electronic book) |
|
0511852401 (electronic book) |
|
9780511761508 (electronic book) |
|
0511761503 (electronic book) |
|
9780521192897 |
|
0521192897 |
|
9780521140911 |
|
0521140919 |
|
