Legal History

Declaring War Congress, the President, and What the Constitution Does Not Say

By Brien Hallett
Cambridge University Press August 2012

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781107608573
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication
August 2012
Format
Paperback , 288 pages
Jurisdiction
International ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

Declaring War directly challenges the 200-year-old belief that Congress can and should declare war. By offering a detailed analysis of the declarations of 1812, 1898 and the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the book demonstrates the extent of the organizational and moral incapacity of Congress to declare war. It invokes Carl von Clausewitz's dictum that 'war is policy' to explain why declarations of war are an integral part of war and proposes two possible remedies – a constitutional amendment or, alternatively, a significant re-organization of Congress. It offers a comprehensive historical, legal, constitutional, moral and philosophical analysis of why Congress has failed to check an imperial presidency. The book draws on Roman history and international law to clarify the form, function and language of declarations of war and John Austin's speech act theory.

• First book to offer a radical internal re-organization of Congress itself to achieve the same objective

• Offers the provocative conclusion that the Constitution is fundamentally flawed because Congress is entirely incapable of declaring war

• Offers a comprehensive historical, legal, constitutional, moral and philosophical analysis of why Congress has failed to check an imperial presidency

Table of Contents

List of Figures
xii
Acknowledgments
xiii
Prologue
xv
1             A Constitutional Tyranny and Presidential Dictatorship
1
Catch 22: Congressional Incapacity and a Dictatorial President
4
Organization of the Book
6
Part I:       What Is the History?
9
2             How the President Declares War: The War of 1812
11
An Absurd War
12
A New Rhetoric of Diabolism
15
A New Congress for Young America
16
A New President or an Old Republican?
17
The War Cabinet
20
The War Hawks
21
Spring Arrives
23
A Dictatorial President Enters Congress
24
The Waiting Game
28
The EndGame
31
Analysis
33
The Absurd Consequences: A Unique Power or a “Divided, but Shared” Power?
33
The Role of Performative Speech Acts
35
Organizational Incapacity
37
Rule of Law
39
Conclusion
40
3             Why the Congress Ought Not Declare War: The Spanish-American War, 1898
42
The Pearl of the Antilles
43
The Restoration Monarchy
46
“To Convene and Give Information”
47
The Message
48
A Bicameral Congress and Electoral Politics
50
Let the “Games” Begin
52
The “Games” Continue in the Senate
54
The “Games” Return to the House
59
The End of the “Games”
61
Analysis
65
Moral Incapacity
65
Decorum and Organization
67
Conflict Resolution Potential
67
Drafting a High-Quality Text: Two Rhetorics
69
Political Politicians
70
4             A Plan for Acquiescence: The War Powers Resolution of 1973
72
An Imperial Presidency?
74
Exorbitant Transaction Costs, Difficulty Coordinating Shared Interests, and an Extensive Collective Action Problem
76
A Congressional Desire to Cooperate
78
Analysis
86
Part II:      What Is a Declaration of War?
89
5             Declaring and Commanding: Forms, Functions, and Relationships
91
“Armed Conflict” versus War
93
The Impossibility of an “Undeclared” War
94
“Formal” versus “Informal” Declarations of War?
95
The Impact of Unconstitutional Declarations on International Law
97
War as a Speech Act: Alternative Types
101
Degrees of Existence
104
Degree of Justification
106
Degree of Ceremony
106
Degree of Perfection
107
War as a Speech Act: The Compositional Elements
108
Ends and Means, Declarer and Commander
113
The Difference between War in Theory and in Practice?
114
What Are the Ends of War?
117
“The End Is Preexistent in the Means”
118
Is Declaring Separable from Commanding?
121
The Primary Functions of Declarations of War
124
6             Lawful and Unlawful Declarations of War: Quantity over Quality
126
Defining the Problem
127
The Congressional Declarations of War
130
Second Continental Congress: The Declaration of Independence, 1776
130
Procedurally Perfect Congressional Enactments to Suppress Piracy, 1798–1823
130
Miscategorization: An Act for the Prosecution of the Existing War between the United States and the Republic of Mexico, 1846
131
Procedurally Imperfect Congressional Declarations of War
132
A.            Without Authorization to Use the Armed Forces
132
B.            With Authorization to Use the Armed Forces
133
Procedurally Perfect Congressional Declarations of War
134
The Presidential Declarations of War
136
The Town Crier Reads a Procedurally Imperfect Declaration of War
138
The Town Crier Rests
138
The Town Crier Reads a Procedurally Perfect Declaration of War
138
Analysis
144
7             Six Possible Structures
146
A Purely Royal or Executive Decision
147
A Mixed Decision, Type 1, Request for an Appropriation
148
A Mixed Decision, Type 2, Request for Authorization
150
A Mixed Decision, Type 3, U.S. Congress, Standing Committee Organization (1812, 1917, 1941)
154
A Mixed Decision, Type 4, U.S. Congress, Standing Committee Organization (1898)
156
A Purely Legislative Decision: Committee of the Whole Organization
157
Part III:     What Are the Solutions?
161
8             A Constitutional Amendment
163
Social Orders and Democracy
164
Why Three Functions?
168
A Constitutional Amendment
175
9             A Congressional Work-Around
183
The Committee-of-the-Whole System
184
A Question of Quantity
186
A Changed Dynamic
191
A Question of Quality: A Degradation of Expertise
193
The National War Powers Commission Report of 2008
196
A Joint Drafting Committee
198
Part IV:      What Is the Theory?
205
10            Bellum Justum et Pium: The Rule of Law and Roman “Piety”
207
An “Impious” Bush
211
Bureaucratic Propriety
213
11            The Rule of Law: Searching for Ontology
216
Universal Affectivity and Performativity
217
Performative Speech Acts: A Technical Vocabulary
219
Self-Contained and Not-Self-Contained Speech Acts
221
The Rule of Men: Slipping through the Gap between Word and World
223
How Not to Declare War: The Insufficiency of the Sufficient Consequences
232
Epilogue:     Senator Malcolm Wallop
237
Appendix I:   Five Congressional Declarations of War and One Appropriations Act
241
Appendix II:  The Fœderative Powers in Parliamentary Governments
251
References
257
Index
265

About the Author

Brien Hallett
University of Hawaii, Matsunaga Institute of Peace

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