Classical Liberal Constitution - The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government

Steering clear of debates over originalism vs. a living Constitution, Richard A. Epstein employs close reading, historical analysis, and political and economic theory to urge a return to federalism, restricted government, separation of powers, and strong protection of individual rights--ideas that animated the framers' constitutional design.

List of contents

Contents Preface: My Constitutional Odyssey Part One. Preliminaries Introduction: Our Two Constitutions 1. The Classical Liberal Synthesis 2. The Progressive Response 3. Constitutional Interpretation: The Original and the Prescriptive Constitutions Part Two. Constitutional Structures Section I: The Judicial Power 4. The Origins of Judicial Review 5. Marbury and Martin 6. Standing: Background and Origins 7. Modern Standing Law 8. The Political Question Doctrine Section II: The Legislative Power 9. The Commerce Power: Theory and Practice, 1787-1865 10. The Commerce Clause in Transition: 1865-1937 11. The Commerce Clause: Transformation to Consolidation, 1937-1995 12. Constitutional Pushback: 1995 to Present, from Lopez to NFIB 13. Enumerated Powers: Taxing and Spending 14. The Necessary and Proper Clause 15. The Dormant Commerce Clause Section III: The Executive Power 16. Basic Principles and Domestic Powers 17. Delegation and the Rise of Independent Agencies 18. Foreign and Military Affairs Part Three. Individual Rights Section I: Property, Contract, and Liberty 19. From Structural Protections to Individual Rights 20. Procedural Due Process: Implementing the Classical Liberal Ideal 21. Freedom of Contract 22. Takings, Physical and Regulatory 23. Personal Liberties and the Morals head of the Police Power Section II: Speech 24. Freedom of Speech and Religion: Preliminary Considerations 25. Force, Threats, and Inducements 26. Fraud, Defamation, Emotional Distress, and Invasion of Privacy 27. Government Regulation of the Speech Commons 28. Progressive Regulation of Freedom of Speech: Labor, Communications, and Campaign Finance Section III: Religion 29. Free Exercise 30. The Establishment Clause: Theoretical Foundations 31. Regulation and Subsidy under the Establishment Clause 32. The Commons Section IV: Equal Protection 33. Race and the Fourteenth Amendment 34. Citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment 35. Equal Protection and Sex Discrimination Part Four. Conclusion Conclusion: The Classical Liberal Alternative Notes Index of Cases General Index

About the author

Richard A. Epstein is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of, among other books, Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain; Simple Rules for a Complex World; Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration, and the Rule of Law; and The Dubious Morality of Modern Administrative Law.

Summary

Steering clear of debates over originalism vs. a living Constitution, Richard A. Epstein employs close reading, historical analysis, and political and economic theory to urge a return to federalism, restricted government, separation of powers, and strong protection of individual rights--ideas that animated the framers' constitutional design.

Report

Over the past three decades, Richard A. Epstein has repeatedly argued-with analytical rigor and astonishing erudition-that governments govern best when they limit their actions to protecting liberty and property...Mr. Epstein believes that constitutional law lost its way when it began to embrace a Progressive vision, according to which rights are created by a supposedly benevolent state...[He] vividly shows us how constitutional law would look if we gave priority to individual rights-something that we have not done for almost a century.
-- Wall Street Journal
Epstein has now produced a full-scale and full-throated defense of his unusual vision of the Constitution. This book is his magnum opus...Much of his book consists of comprehensive and exceptionally detailed accounts of how constitutional provisions ought to be understood...All of Epstein's particular discussions are instructive, and most of them are provocative...Epstein has written a passionate, learned, and committed book.
-- New Republic
[An] important and learned book.
-- Times Literary Supplement
The central mission of The Classical Liberal Constitution is to go against the grain of modern Supreme Court jurisprudence and much of the legal scholarship that has grown up around that body of work. The motivation for this argument should be apparent from the major disarray that infects every area of modern American life: steady decline in the average standard of living; constant battles over debt limits and fiscal cliffs; uncertainty over key elements of the tax structure; massive overregulation of the most productive sources in society (health care and financial services); government-inspired brinksmanship in labor negotiations; and runaway redistribution programs that undercut the economic production that makes these programs viable. All of these major programs could not have happened under the original constitutional structure, faithfully interpreted in light of changed circumstances. The confluence of these events cannot be dismissed as the result of random noise or simple mistakes. Rather, they are the ultimate consequence of the profound progressive break with the classical liberal tradition that was the guiding genius in the drafting and interpretation of the Constitution.
-- From the book

Product details

• Authors: Richard A Epstein, Richard A. Epstein
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 07.01.2014
• EAN: 9780674724891
• ISBN: 978-0-674-72489-1
• No. of pages: 704
• Subjects: Guides > Law, job, finance > Taxes; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political theories and the history of ideas