Constitutional Essentials On the Constitutional Theory of Political Liberalism

by Michelman, Frank I.

• ISBN13: 9780197655832
• ISBN10: 0197655831
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2022-09-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Is the constitution ideally "legal" or "political"? "Written" or "unwritten"? How thick or thin are its principles and guarantees? Where does constitutional fidelity fit among liberal political virtues? What of "restraint" in the conduct of judicial constitutional review, or "originalism" in constitutional interpretation? These are questions raised by lawyers in constitutional-democratic societies throughout the world.

In Constitutional Essentials: On the Constitutional Theory of Political Liberalism, Michelman not only raises these questions but explains why these debates persist in modern day constitutional democracies. Through the lens of John Rawls' seminal work Political Liberalism, Michelman responds to the problems governments of constitutional-democratic societies face from deep-lying disagreement among citizens. Rawls' suggested one solution: a "constitution," one that included a bill of rights-that all, despite other disagreements, could accept. Michelman explains Rawls' proposal, placing it within a duality of functions -"regulatory" and "justificatory" - for which, he says, lawyers in constitutional-democratic societies typically look to their countries' bodies of constitutional law.

A close examination of the constitution-centered proposition on political legitimacy, this book will be valuable reading to academics in the fields of politics, philosophy, and law.

Author Biography

Frank I. Michelman is the Robert Walmsley University Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University. He is past President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a past Co-Director of the annual Prague Conference on Philosophy and Social Science, and has served on the Board of Directors of the United States Association of Constitutional Law and the National Advisory Board of the American Constitution Society. In 2005, Professor Michelman was awarded the American Philosophical Society's Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence and, in 2004, the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize.