The Flexible Constitution (Hardback)
$65.00 - Free shipping worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for The Flexible Constitution This is a new Wittgensteinian account of the American Constitution that provides a fresh perspective on how judges can follow a legal document written in flexible language. The book shows why originalism is incompatible with the American legal system and challenges the views of Ronald Dworkin and numerous law professors.
Full description- Publisher: Lexington Books
- Published: 14 December 2012
- Format: Hardback 236 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Political Science & Theory | Constitution: Government & The State | Constitutional & Administrative Law | Social & Political Philosophy
- ISBN 13: 9780739178157 ISBN 10: 0739178156
- Sales rank: 487,500
Full description for The Flexible Constitution
This is an ambitious work on constitutional theory. Influenced by the views of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sean Wilson tackles the problem of how a judge can obey a document written in ordinary, flexible language. He argues that whether something is "constitutional" is not an historical fact, but is an artisan judgment. Criteria are set forth showing why some judgments represent superior connoisseurship and why others do not. Along the way, Wilson offers a potent critique of originalism. He not only explains this belief system, but shows why it is inherently incompatible with the American legal system. His conclusion is that originalism can only be understood as a legal ideology, not a meaningful contribution to philosophy of law. The ways of thinking about constitutional interpretation provided in the book end up challenging the scholarship of Ronald Dworkin and numerous law professors. And the findings also challenge the way that professors of politics often think about whether a judge has "followed law."
