کتابخانه

Title: The Language of Liberal Constitutionalism | Author(s): Howard Schweber | Year: 2007 | Edition: 1 | Language: English | Pages : 392 | Size: 2 MB | Extension: pdf

This book explores two basic questions regarding constitutional theory. First, in view of a commitment to democratic self-rule and widespread disagreement on questions of value, how is the creation of a legitimate constitutional regime possible? Second, what must be true about a constitution if the regime that it supports is to retain its claim to legitimacy? Howard Schweber shows that the answers to these questions appear in a theory of constitutional language that combines democratic theory with constitutional philosophy. The creation of a legitimate constitutional regime depends on a shared commitment to a particular and specialized form of language. Out of this simple observation, Schweber develops arguments about the characteristics of constitutional language, the necessary differences between constitutional language and the language of ordinary law or morality, as well as the authority of officials such as judges to engage in constitutional review of laws.

Table of contents :
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Introduction......Page 9
1 The Search for Sovereignty: Law, Language, and the Beginnings of Modern Constitutionalism......Page 24
Jean Bodin: Sovereignty Over Law......Page 26
Thomas Hobbes Leviathan Sovereignty Over Language......Page 37
John Locke: Language, Law, and Popular Sovereignty......Page 53
Human Understanding: From Simple Ideas to Conventional Meanings......Page 56
Laws of Nature: From Divine Will to Human Nature......Page 68
Second Treatise: Language, Law, and Political Authority......Page 72
Lockean Constitutionalism and the Theory of Constitutional Language......Page 83
2 Consent How? Challenges to Lockean Constitutionalism......Page 89
Lockean Constitutionalism: James Wilson and A.B. Dicey......Page 91
Objections to Lockean Constitutionalism......Page 103
Sovereignty and Language......Page 124
3 Constitutional Language and the Possibility of Binding Commitments......Page 143
The Problem of Precommitment......Page 158
The Case For Precommitment......Page 171
Sovereignty, Commitment, And Constraint......Page 184
Conclusion – From "Consent How?" To "Consent To What ?"......Page 201
4 Consent to What? Exclusivity and Completeness in Constitutional and Legal Language......Page 205
The Argument for Exclusivity......Page 211
The Argument for Incompleteness......Page 226
Constitutional and Legal Legitimacy: Grounding Norms and Legal Positivism......Page 237
Legal Legitimacy and Social Values: H.L.A. Harts rules of recognition......Page 255
5 The Question of Substance Morality, Law, and Constitutional Legitimacy......Page 268
The Question of Substance and the challenge of moral correctness......Page 270
The Function of Substance and The Challenge of Democratic Theory......Page 279
Law, Democracy, and Language: Toward a Norm of Constitutional Integrity......Page 292
Making Integrity Work: The Authority of Officials and the Need For Horizons......Page 299
The Autonomy of Constitutional Language and the Requirement of Translation......Page 315
6 The Defense of Constitutional Language......Page 327
Bibliography......Page 357
Index......Page 371