American Constitutional Law PDF Download

Author: Robert A. Sedler
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041190589
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this very useful analysis of constitutional law in the United States provides essential information on the country’s sources of constitutional law, its form of government, and its administrative structure. Lawyers who handle transnational matters will appreciate the clarifications of particular terminology and its application. Throughout the book, the treatment emphasizes the specific points at which constitutional law affects the interpretation of legal rules and procedure. Thorough coverage by a local expert fully describes the political system, the historical background, the role of treaties, legislation, jurisprudence, and administrative regulations. The discussion of the form and structure of government outlines its legal status, the jurisdiction and workings of the central state organs, the subdivisions of the state, its decentralized authorities, and concepts of citizenship. Special issues include the legal position of aliens, foreign relations, taxing and spending powers, emergency laws, the power of the military, and the constitutional relationship between church and state. Details are presented in such a way that readers who are unfamiliar with specific terms and concepts in varying contexts will fully grasp their meaning and significance. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable time-saving tool for both practising and academic jurists. Lawyers representing parties with interests in the United States will welcome this guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative constitutional law.

Author: Donald P. Kommers
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742526877
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1128

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Book Description
Designed for an undergraduate course in US constitutional law, the casebook takes a liberal arts approach, tracing constitutional doctrine and policy back to their foundation in social, moral, and political theory, and prompting students to engage the great questions of political life addressed by the Constitution and its interpretation. Opinions of the US Supreme Court constitute the core of the documents. The first edition was published in 1998; the second adds and updates topics. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Author: John R. Vile
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442203862
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
First published in 1954, this indispensable reference quickly became the gold standard for concise summaries of important U.S. Supreme Court cases. The only reference guide to Supreme Court cases organized both topically and chronologically within chapters so that readers understand how cases fit into a historical context, the 15th edition has been extensively revised to ensure that it remains the most up-to-date resource available. An essential resource for law students, lawyers, and everyone interested in our nation's Constitution and the Supreme Court decisions that explicate it.

Author: Robert P. George
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400882729
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers' rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies in American history. And in this concise and thought-provoking volume, some of today's most distinguished legal scholars and commentators explain for a general audience how five landmark Supreme Court cases centered on those controversies shaped the country's destiny and continue to affect us even now. The book is a profound exploration of the Supreme Court's importance to America's social and political life. It is also, as many of the contributors show, an intriguing reflection of what some have seen as an important trend in legal scholarship away from an uncritical belief in the essentially benign nature of judicial power. Robert George opens with an illuminating survey of the themes that unite and divide the five cases. Other contributors then examine each case in detail through a lively commentary-and-response format. Mark Tushnet and Jeremy Waldron exchange views on Marbury v. Madison, the pivotal 1803 case that established the power of the courts to invalidate legislation. Cass Sunstein and James McPherson discuss Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), the notorious case that confirmed the rights of slaveowners, declared that black people could not be American citizens, and is often seen as a cause of the Civil War. Hadley Arkes and Donald Drakeman explore the legacy of Lochner v. New York (1905), a case that ushered in decades of judicial hostility to social welfare laws. Earl Maltz and Walter Murphy assess Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954), the famous case that ended racial segregation in public schools. Finally, Jean Bethke Elshtain and George Will tackle Roe v. Wade (1973), still a flashpoint a quarter of a century later in the debate over abortion. While some of the contributors show sympathy for strong judicial interventions on social issues, many across the ideological spectrum are sharply critical of judicial activism. A compelling introduction to the greatest cases in U.S. constitutional law, this is also an enlightening glimpse of the state of the art in American legal scholarship.

Author: Tom Ginsburg
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 0857931210
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 681

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Book Description
This landmark volume of specially commissioned, original contributions by top international scholars organizes the issues and controversies of the rich and rapidly maturing field of comparative constitutional law. Divided into sections on constitutional design and redesign, identity, structure, individual rights and state duties, courts and constitutional interpretation, this comprehensive volume covers over 100 countries as well as a range of approaches to the boundaries of constitutional law. While some chapters reference the text of legal instruments expressly labeled constitutional, others focus on the idea of entrenchment or take a more functional approach. Challenging the current boundaries of the field, the contributors offer diverse perspectives - cultural, historical and institutional - as well as suggestions for future research. A unique and enlightening volume, Comparative Constitutional Law is an essential resource for students and scholars of the subject.

Author: Lawrence Lessig
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190932562
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description
The fundamental fact about our Constitution is that it is old -- the oldest written constitution in the world. The fundamental challenge for interpreters of the Constitution is how to read that old document over time. In Fidelity & Constraint, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig explains that one of the most basic approaches to interpreting the constitution is the process of translation. Indeed, some of the most significant shifts in constitutional doctrine are products of the evolution of the translation process over time. In every new era, judges understand their translations as instances of "interpretive fidelity," framed within each new temporal context. Yet, as Lessig also argues, there is a repeatedly occurring countermove that upends the process of translation. Throughout American history, there has been a second fidelity in addition to interpretive fidelity: what Lessig calls "fidelity to role." In each of the cycles of translation that he describes, the role of the judge -- the ultimate translator -- has evolved too. Old ways of interpreting the text now become illegitimate because they do not match up with the judge's perceived role. And when that conflict occurs, the practice of judges within our tradition has been to follow the guidance of a fidelity to role. Ultimately, Lessig not only shows us how important the concept of translation is to constitutional interpretation, but also exposes the institutional limits on this practice. The first work of both constitutional and foundational theory by one of America's leading legal minds, Fidelity & Constraint maps strategies that both help judges understand the fundamental conflict at the heart of interpretation whenever it arises and work around the limits it inevitably creates.

Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
ISBN: 9781590318737
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Author: Mark Tushnet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009058312
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Twenty-first-century constitutions now typically include a new 'fourth branch' of government, a group of institutions charged with protecting constitutional democracy, including electoral management bodies, anticorruption agencies, and ombuds offices. This book offers the first general theory of the fourth branch; in a world where governance is exercised through political parties, we cannot be confident that the traditional three branches are enough to preserve constitutional democracy. The fourth branch institutions can, by concentrating within themselves distinctive forms of expertise, deploy that expertise more effectively than the traditional branches are capable of doing. However, several case studies of anticorruption efforts, electoral management bodies, and audit bureaus show that the fourth branch institutions do not always succeed in protecting constitutional democracy, and indeed sometimes undermine it. The book concludes with some cautionary notes about placing too much hope in these – or, indeed, in any – institutions as the guarantors of constitutional democracy.

Author: Michael Kent Curtis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594608117
Category : Constitutional law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The 2016-2017 Annual Supplement is available here. This volume is now available only as a paperback--ISBN 978-1-5310-0476-7 ($90). Through both historical essays and a timeline of American constitutional history, Constitutional Law in Context helps students understand constitutional law in light of cases, doctrine, constitutional analysis, federalism, and historical context. It covers both structure of government and individual liberty cases, and it includes a substantial chapter on free speech. In addition, the book provides historical context for the cases. The casebook helps students to see how historical context shaped doctrinal developments. It also shows how historical developments affecting one doctrine often shaped other doctrines as well. Examples include parallel changes in commerce clause, substantive due process, and equal protection cases, and in cases related to race and gender. The chapter on incorporation includes excerpts from the Black Codes and from the congressional debates on the Fourteenth Amendment. The incorporation chapter also shows how the framers of the amendment were influenced by denials of civil liberties that occurred during the crusade against slavery. The book contains materials on constitutional decision-making outside of the Supreme Court including materials on the Clinton impeachment and examples from free speech history. By its emphasis on the types of constitutional arguments, Constitutional Law in Context is designed to assist students in understanding and formulating constitutional arguments based on text, history, precedent, and policy. To help students understand constitutional doctrine, the book contains short doctrinal essays, charts, and diagrams. It also deals with some state constitutional law cases to remind students that state constitutions may provide independent and sometimes greater protection of rights. This new third edition includes cases decided through the 2009-2010 term and several new essays. The authors traditionally provide online supplements each year at no charge.

Author: Laurence H. Tribe
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674165397
Category : Constitutional law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Challenging the ruling premises underlying many of the Supreme Court's positions on fundamental issues of government authority and individual rights, Tribe shows how the Court is increasingly coming to resemble a judicial Office of Management and Budget, straining constitutional discourse through a managerial sieve to defend its constitutional rulings. Tribe explains how the Court's "calculus" systematically excludes basic concerns about the distribution of wealth and power and conceals fundamental choices about the American polity. Calling for a more candid confrontation of those choices, Tribe exposes what has gone wrong and suggests how the Court can reclaim the historic role entrusted to it by the Constitution. ISBN 0-674-16538-1: $29.95.