Name: Saving the Constitution from Lawyers
Brand: Cambridge University Press
SKU: 9780521721721
Price: 340.34 HKD
Availability: OutOfStock
Author: Robert J. Spitzer
ISBN: 9780521721721

Saving the Constitution from Lawyers How Legal Training and Law Reviews Distort Constitutional Meaning

By Robert J. Spitzer

Cambridge University Press June 2008

Specifications

ISBN-13: 9780521721721
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication: June 2008
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

This book is a sweeping indictment of the legal profession in the realm of constitutional interpretation. The adversarial, advocacy-based American legal system is well suited to American justice, in which one-sided arguments collide to produce a just outcome. But when applied to constitutional theorizing, the result is selective analysis, overheated rhetoric, distorted facts, and overstated conclusions.

Such wayward theorizing finds its way into print in the nation’s over 600 law journals – professional publications run by law students, not faculty or other professionals – and peer review is almost never used to evaluate worthiness. The consequences of this system are examined through three timely cases: the presidential veto, the ‘unitary theory’ of the president’s commander-in-chief power, and the Second Amendment’s ‘right to bear arms’.

In each case, law reviews were the breeding ground for defective theories that won false legitimacy and political currency. This book concludes with recommendations for reform.

Table of Contents

Contents:: 1. The logic, and illogic, of law; 2. The law journal breeding ground; 3. The inherent item veto; 4. The unitary executive and the commander-in-chief power; 5. The second amendment; 6. Conclusion.