Description
Book SynopsisThis third volume about legal interpretation focuses on the interpretation of a constitution, most specifically that of the United States of America. In what may be unique, it combines a generalized account of various claims and possibilities with an examination of major domains of American constitutional law. This demonstrates convincingly that the book''s major themes not only can be supported by individual examples, but are undeniably in accord with the continuing practice of the United States Supreme Court over time, and cannot be dismissed as misguided.The book''s central thesis is that strategies of constitutional interpretation cannot be simple, that judges must take account of multiple factors not systematically reducible to any clear ordering. For any constitution that lasts over centuries and is hard to amend, original understanding cannot be completely determinative. To discern what that is, both how informed readers grasped a provision and what were the enactors'' aims matt
Table of ContentsTable of Contents ; Preface ; Part I: General Themes ; Chapter 1: The Nature of Constitutions: Basic Questions about Their Interpretation ; Chapter 2: Multiple Interpretive Criteria ; Chapter 3: Original Understanding: What Is Relevant and How Much Does It Count? ; Chapter 4: Employing Multiple Standards ; Chapter 5: Neutral Principles or <"Objective>" Standards: Their Relevance and Attainability ; Part II: A Poignant Illustration ; Chapter 6: Cruel and Unusual Punishment ; Part III: Allocations of Powers ; Chapter 7: Federal Separation of Powers ; Chapter 8: Federal Powers ; Part IV: Individual Rights and Norms of Equality ; Chapter 9: Freedom of Speech and the Press ; Chapter 10: The Religion Clauses ; Chapter 11: Criminal Process: The Right to Counsel, Unreasonable Searches and Seizures, and the Privilege against Self-Incrimination ; Chapter 12: Equal Protection ; Conclusion
