Using Trinidad and Tobago as the model, this book offers an overview of the constitutional reform process in the Commonwealth Caribbean. In these young, post-colonial democracies, where party politics and power politics have had a negative impact on the process of democratic reform, the authors review the historical, political and cultural motivations that have spawn the most recent debates on constitutional reform; and more particularly on the proposals for parliamentary and electoral ref...

The most important documents of the United States of America are collected in this easy-to-read volume, which includes the Constitution of the United States of America, with all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; the Articles of Confederation, and an appendix containing a list of the states by date of admission to the Union. Every citizen of the United States, student of history anywhere in the world, or anyone interested in understanding who we are as a nation should have...

Whether examining election outcomes, the legal status of terrorism suspects, or if (or how) people can be sentenced to death, a judge in a modern democracy assumes a role that raises some of the most contentious political issues of our day. But do judges even have a role beyond deciding the disputes before them under law? What are the criteria for judging the justices who write opinions for the United States Supreme Court or constitutional courts in other democracies? These are the questio...

The United States Constitution is the foundation of the longest and most successful democratic experiment in modern human history. It serves not only as legal bedrock for the world's most powerful nation-state, but also, more broadly, it reflects that nation's fundamental aspirations and commitments as a society. Who then has the authority to interpret a blueprint of such extraordinary influence? Americans have come to treat the Constitution as something beyond their competence, something ...

The United States of America has been blessed with the world’s greatest political success formula. In a little over a century, this formula allowed a small segment of the human family—less than 6 percent—to become the richest nation on earth. It allowed them to create more than half of the world’s total output in production and enjoy the highest standard of living in the history of the world.In this book, we learn how the Founding Fathers discovered this success formula. Much of th...

Unlike many national constitutions, which contain explicit positive rights to such things as education, a living wage, and a healthful environment, the U.S. Bill of Rights appears to contain only a long list of prohibitions on government. American constitutional rights, we are often told, protect people only from an overbearing government, but give no explicit guarantees of governmental help. Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places argues that we have fundamentally misunderstoo...

He who can change the Constitution controls the Constitution. So who does control the Constitution? The answer has always been: “the people.” The people control the Constitution via the Article V amending process outlined in the Constitution itself. Changes can only be made through Article V and its formal procedures. Article V has always provided a means of perfecting the Constitution in an explicit, democratically authentic, prudent, and deliberative manner. In addition to changing the C...

During the 1700s, the American Founding Fathers became acutely aware that all mankind is seeking the same three things. Regardless of race, religion, or nationality, all human beings long for: freedom, prosperity, and peace.Of course, freedom is not an individual or isolated state of being. Freedom can only be enjoyed in a society or nation that is free. By the same token, prosperity and the opportunity to enjoy the good things of life require that the government be structured so t...

The debate over the framers’ concept of freedom of religion has become heated and divisive. This scrupulously researched book sets aside the half-truths, omissions, and partisan arguments, and instead focuses on the actual writings and actions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others. Legal scholar Michael I. Meyerson investigates how the framers of the Constitution envisioned religious freedom and how they intended it to operate in the new republic.Endowed by Our C...

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America, and worthy of study. In formation though, the path to adoption was not without dissent: the Anti-Federalist movement was against the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government, and vocally opposed the ratification of the Constitution, because the Articles of Confederation originally gave state governments more authority. Led by Patrick Henry of Virginia, Anti-Federalists worried, among other thing...

Can courts really build democracy in a state emerging from authoritarian rule? This book presents a searching critique of the contemporary global model of democracy-building for post-authoritarian states, arguing that it places excessive reliance on courts. Since 1945, both constitutional courts and international human rights courts have been increasingly perceived as alchemists, capable of transmuting the base materials of a nascent democracy into the gold of a functioning democratic syst...