Leonardo Pierdominici: Constitutional Adjudication and the ‘Dimensions’ of Judicial Activism: Legal and Institutional Heuristics
Michael Ramsey

Leonardo Pierdominici (European University Institute – Department of Law; University of Bologna – Faculty of Law) has posted Constitutional Adjudication and the 'Dimensions' of Judicial Activism: Legal and Institutional Heuristics (Sant'Anna Legal Studies Research Paper, n. 3/2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The dominant approach to constitutional law, and even more so to constitutional theory, […]

Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey

Chris Arledge & Todd Green: Originalism and Its Discontents: How Should the U.S. Constitution Be Interpreted? This is from a while back, but it holds interest: two practicing attorneys debate the merits of originalism, providing a perspective on how lawyers, rather than academics or political commentators, view the issue.

Eric Fish: The Twenty-Sixth Amendment Enforcement Power
Michael Rappaport

Eric S. Fish (Yale University – Law School) has posted The Twenty-Sixth Amendment Enforcement Power (Yale Law Journal, 2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the national voting age to eighteen. Judges and scholars cite it for that proposition, and nothing more. This Paper argues, contra the conventional wisdom, that the […]

Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey

Eliot Spitzer interviews Fareed Zakaria and Simon Schama about interpreting the U.S. Constitution. It’s good to hear Spitzer say that “the word originalism” is “at the heart of so much of this debate” over constitutional interpretation.  But the interview features a host with no sympathy for originalism interviewing two guests with no sympathy for originalism.  Not […]

Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey

Bradley C. S. Watson:  A Plea for Positivism.   In this sophiticated and worthwhile review of Gary L. McDowell's book The Language of Law and the Foundations of American Constitutionalism, Professor Watson highlights McDowell's linkage of positivism and originalism.