The "Higher Law" Background of American Constitutional Law

1928 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward S. Corwin
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Higher Law

scholarly journals The Figure of Constitutional Law of the ‘Integrated State’: The Case of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Gerkrath
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Area ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Higher Law ◽  
Grand Duchy

EU member state status - Member statehood - The idea of an “Integrated State” - Impact of EU membership on the concepts and substance of national constitutional law - Europeanization of member state's constitutional law - European constitutional law understood as Europeanized national constitutional law - European functions of constitutional organs - How to protect fundamental rights in a European area characterized by the overlaying of legal sources - The concept of “higher law” within the national legal order - A Union of Constitutionally Integrated States

Coke, Corwin and the Constitution: The “Higher Law Background” Reconsidered

1993 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary L. McDowell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Higher Law ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

In recent years the debate over the nature and extent of judicial power in the United States has been dominated by questions concerning moral theory, unwritten constitutions, and natural law. In a significant sense, the contemporary discussion is but the continuation of the theory of judicial review first put forth by Edward S. Corwin in 1910–1911; it was this theory that the “higher law background” of American constitutional law derived from the dicta of Sir Edward Coke's opinion in Bonham's Case (1610) that was given its most complete expression in Corwin's famous two-part article in the Harvard Law Review in 1928–29. The fact is, the influence of Coke's opinion in Bonham's Case came from within the scholarly world; its significance stems not from history but from the historians; it was largely Corwin's creation. This paper seeks to correct the record and to show the deficiencies of Corwin's understanding about the relationship of the “higher law” to the American Constitution.

The "Higher Law" Background of American Constitutional Law

1956 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 726
Author(s):  
Charles M. Whelan ◽  
Edward S. Corwin
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Higher Law

The "Higher Law" Background of American Constitutional Law

1929 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward S. Corwin
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Higher Law

The Case for Religious Constitutions: Comparative Constitutional Law among Buddhists and Other Religious Groups

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Benjamin Schonthal
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Global History ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Comparative Constitutional Law ◽  
Social Ordering ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Higher Law

This article argues that there is body of governing laws appearing widely throughout the global history of religions that warrants classification as constitutions. Like national constitutions, these religious constitutions present themselves as a form of “higher law” that declare the identity of a given a community, organize its structures of governing power, define its foundational norms, and authorize further acts of rulemaking. In this article, I offer an overview of these texts across several traditions and a defense of their importance in the study of comparative constitutional law. I then draw on fieldwork from Sri Lanka to provide a firsthand account of what a modern religious constitution looks like and how it works to govern one of the country’s largest communities of Buddhist monks. I conclude by urging scholars to view religion and constitutional law not as opposing legal domains but, rather, as homologous forms of social ordering that draw upon similar concepts and logics to address common human dilemmas.

Constituting Scotland

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Elliot Bulmer
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Constitutional Design ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Comparative Constitutional Law ◽  
Constitutional Thought ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
Constitutional Tradition

The rise of the Scottish national movement has been accompanied by the emergence of distinct constitutional ideas, claims and arguments, which may affect constitutional design in any future independent Scotland. Drawing on the fields of constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, and Scottish studies, this book examines the historical trajectory of the constitutional question in Scotland and analyses the influences and constraints on the constitutional imagination of the Scottish national movement, in terms of both the national and international contexts. It identifies an emerging Scottish nationalist constitutional tradition that is distinct from British constitutional orthodoxies but nevertheless corresponds to broad global trends in constitutional thought and design. Much of the book is devoted to the detailed exposition and comparative analysis of the draft constitution for an independent Scotland published by the SNP in 2002. The 2014 draft interim Constitution presented by the Scottish Government is also examined, and the two texts are contrasted to show the changing nature of the SNP’s constitutional policy: from liberal-procedural constitutionalism in pursuit of a more inclusive polity, to a more populist and majoritarian constitutionalism.

America's Lone Star Constitution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas A. Powe Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
School Finance ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

Texas has created more constitutional law than any other state. In any classroom nationwide, any basic constitutional law course can be taught using nothing but Texas cases. That, however, understates the history and politics behind the cases. Beyond representing all doctrinal areas of constitutional law, Texas cases deal with the major issues of the nation. This book charts the rich and pervasive development of Texas-inspired constitutional law. From voting rights to railroad regulations, school finance to capital punishment, poverty to civil liberty, this book provides a window into the relationship between constitutional litigation and ordinary politics at the Texas Supreme Court, illuminating how all of the fiercest national divides over what the Constitution means took shape in Texas.

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