Balkinization  

Thursday, March 08, 2012

My new book

Sandy Levinson

The Oxford University Press will be publishing on April 2, my new book Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance. (Interestingly enough, it appears available for shipment immediately from Amazon.com though not, for some reason, from Barnesandnoble.com, which lists an April 2 availability.) The Liberty Forum, attached to the Liberty Fund, has been kind enough to invite me to post a description of the book, which they tellingly title "A Jeffersonian proposal for the Constitution," inasmuch as I believe, like Jefferson, that the Constitution deserves far less veneration and far more "strict scrutiny" (not his words) as to whether it serves as well in the 21st century. I also believe that it is absolutely vital to realize that there are 50 other models besides the national one for "constitutional government" and that some of the state constitutions may have valuable lessonsn to teach about ways to organize such a government.

The Forum earlier posted a very friendly debate between Michael Paulsen and myself over what the introductory course to constitutional law should look like. His initial post was provocatively titled "The Uselessness of Constitutional Law." My response suggested that Michael was in fact not radical enough in his criticique of "standard-model" constitutional law courses. This may suggest, incidentally, that there might be genuinely productive conversations between "liberals" and "conservatives" if we shift the focus away from modes of constitutional interpretation to very different discussions about constitutional design

You can, I believe, leave "comments" on the Liberty Forum site, but if you prefer to do so on this site (or cross post), feel free. Ideally, though, people will buy and read the book :) before rushing to criticize it.

Comments:

Hurrah! It's about time for publication of an erudite and well argued yet accessible book that connects the dots from our overly revered Constitution to the political gridlock of the moment. And, I'm so glad that Levinson is spreading the word about his latest contribution.
 

Your contents are too simple to read and easy to understand.launch x431
 

Post a Comment

Older Posts
Newer Posts
Home