CHI TIẾT NGHIÊN CỨU …
Tiêu đề
The canons of constitutional law
Tác giả
Balkin J.M.; Levinson S.
Năm xuất bản
1998
Source title
Harvard Law Review
Số trích dẫn
16
DOI
10.2307/1342010
Liên kết
Tóm tắt
Academic and political debates about what texts are canonical in the liberal arts have been occurring for some time. In this Commentary, Professors Balkin and Levinson discuss canons and canonicity in the study of law in general and of constitutional law in particular. Canons, they contend, are not simply collections of texts. Skills, approaches, forms of argument, standard examples, and even stock stories can be equally canonical to a discipline or culture. The authors argue that the most significant differences between how canons are formed in law and in the liberal arts stem from differences in institutional context. First, because law schools are professional schools, concerns of pedagogy, cultural literacy, and academic theory diverge more in law than they do in the liberal arts and hence form distinct if overlapping canons. Second, because legal canons rely heavily on pronouncements of courts and legislatures, liberal arts scholars have more control over their canon than do legal scholars. Nevertheless, legal scholars do have some agency informing their canon, and the authors contend that the canon of constitutional law needs serious revision. The current study of constitutional law is too much centered on the opinions of the Supreme Court and lacks comparative and historical perspective. The narrowness of current canonical materials has had unfortunate effects for constitutional theory and legal education, encouraging too much specialization and focusing attention away from basic questions about the justice of the legal system. A revitalized constitutional canon should pay attention to structural questions that do not often come before courts, and it should include nonjudicial interpreters of the Constitution, particularly representatives of political and social movements whose interpretations often shape and influence the direction of constitutional interpretation.
Từ khóa
Tài liệu tham khảo
Douglass F., Address at Glasgow: The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?, The life and writings of Frederick Douglass, 2, pp. 467-480, (1860); Douglass F., Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies, (1994); Douglass F., My bondage and my freedom, pp. 44-45, (1855); Douglass F., Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, (1845); I the life and writings of Frederick Douglass
Nơi xuất bản
Harvard Law Review Association
Hình thức xuất bản
Article
Open Access
All Open Access; Green Open Access
Nguồn
Scopus