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The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation

The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation

Author: Paul Gowder
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509954667

Published In: June 2023
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781509939992

List Price: HKD 571.87

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Contents

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What is the American rule of law? Is it a paradigm case of the strong constitutionalism concept of the rule of law or has it fallen short of its rule of law ambitions?

This book traces the promise and paradox of the American rule of law in three interwoven ways. It focuses on explicating the ideals of the American rule of law by asking: how do we interpret its history and the goals of its constitutional framers to see the rule of law ambitions its foundational institutions express?

It considers those constitutional institutions as inextricable from the problem of race in the United States and the tensions between the rule of law as a protector of property rights and the rule of law as a restrictor on arbitrary power and a guarantor of legal equality. In that context, it explores the distinctive role of Black liberation movements in developing the American rule of law.

Finally, it considers the extent to which the American rule of law is compromised at its frontiers, and the extent that those compromises undermine legal protections Americans enjoy in the interior. It asks how America reflects the legal contradictions of capitalism and empire outside its borders, and the impact of those contradictions on its external goals.

Introduction: Is America the Paragon of the Rule of Law?

The Methodological Problem: What is the Rule of Law, Anyway?

The Black Liberation Rule of Law

Where We're Going

1. Madison's Theory of General Law Versus Property and Slavery

The Special Position of Property

Slavery as Lawlessness

Slavery as Property

The Impossibility of Holding Slavery Within Its Bounds

2. The Fugitive Slave Acts, Judicial Independence, and the Jury

Judicial Independence and the Jury

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: The Return of the Vice-Admiralty Court