The drafting of and debate about a new U.S. constitution took place in
Philadelphia more or less at the same time as Pennsylvania's debate about how
to replace its failed constitution of 1776, and was very much influenced by
Pennsylvania's experience. Pennsylvania's Council of Censors was not
Many Americans are now dual citizens with other countries. What relevance
does this have to our discussion?
= Original Message From Discussion list for con law professors
[EMAIL PROTECTED] =
A few weeks ago, my eight-year-old daughter Katie invited one of her closest
friends to stay
concept
of self-rule be enforced?
Malla Pollack
Visiting, Univ. of Oregon, Law
541-346-1599
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- Original Message -
From: msellers [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: self-rule and liberty
Defining constitutional terms can
Defining constitutional terms can be very helpful in working out which values
are more fundamental, and therefore underly others in constitutional
discourse. Self-rule is an important idea, that deserves careful
examination.
The preamble to the U.S. Constitution lists securing the blessings of
Democracy has come to have a positive connotation, which is why its meaning
has become so broad. People now often use democracy to describe whatever
political system or program they support, however far removed it may be from
simple majority rule.
The framers feared democracy because for them
I think that the framers of the United States Constitution (and most of the
participants in this list) would agree that equality, self-determination,
deliberation, and the concept of self-rule, as Prof. Lipkin has defined it,
are all important aspects of just government, as is democracy, provided
If self-rule signifies that the people collectively have freely decided some
question of government, then some explanation will be required of the
circumstances in which the people collectively can be said to have decided
freely. I suspect that the word free will have to do a lot of work here. I
Bobby has raised exactly the sort of question that this list exists to
discuss: What purposes does (or ought) the U.S. Constitution exist to
serve? and what vocabulary best captures those purposes?
Collective self-rule may well be useful description of what the U.S. (and
other) constitutions
