Responding to Imperfection : : The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment / / ed. by Sanford Levinson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• MitwirkendeR: Ackerman, Bruce,; Brandon, Mark E.,; Dow, David R.,; Griffin, Stephen M.,; Holmes, Stephen,; Levinson, Sanford,; Lutz, Donald S.,; Murphy, Walter F.,; Reed Amar, Akhil,; Schauer, Frederick,; Sunstein, Cass R.,; Vile, John R.,; Zohar, Noam J.,
• HerausgeberIn: Levinson, Sanford,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [1995]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 1995
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.) :; 16 tables

An increasing number of constitutional theorists, within both the legal academy and university departments of government, are focusing on the conceptual and political problems attached to the notion of constitutional amendment. Amendments are, among other things, recognitions of the imperfection of existing schemes of government. The relative ease or difficulty of amendment has significant implications for the ways that governments respond to problems that call either for new structures of governance or new powers for already established structures. This book brings together essays by leading legal authorities and political scientists on a range of questions from whether the U.S. Constitution is subject to amendment by procedures other than those authorized by Article V to how significant change is conceptualized within classical rabbinic Judaism. Though the essays are concerned for the most part with the American experience, other constitutional traditions are considered as well. The contributors include Bruce Ackerman, Akhil Reed Amar, Mark E. Brandon, David R. Dow, Stephen M. Griffin, Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein, Sanford Levinson, Donald Lutz, Walter Murphy, Frederick Schauer, John R. Vile, and Noam J. Zohar.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- One. Introduction: Imperfection and Amendability -- Two. How Many Times Has the United States Constitution Been Amended? (A) < 26; (B) 26; (C) 27; (D) > 27: Accounting for Constitutional Change -- Three. Constitutionalism in the United States: From Theory to Politics -- Four. Higher Lawmaking -- Five. Popular Sovereignty and Constitutional Amendment -- Six. The Plain Meaning of Article V -- Seven. Amending the Presuppositions of a Constitution -- Eight. Merlin's Memory: The Past and Future Imperfect of the Once and Future Polity -- Nine. The Case against Implicit Limits on the Constitutional Amending Process -- Ten. The "Original" Thirteenth Amendment and the Limits to Formal Constitutional Change -- Eleven. Toward a Theory of Constitutional Amendment -- Twelve. The Politics of Constitutional Revision in Eastern Europe -- Thirteen. Midrash: Amendment through the Molding of Meaning -- Appendix: Amending Provisions of Selected New Constitutions in Eastern Europe -- Contributors -- Index