Bauer, Elizabeth Kelley. Commentaries on the Constitution 1790-1860. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952. 400 pp. Reprinted 1999 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 98-45409. ISBN 1-886363-66-8. Cloth. $95. * A thorough survey and examination of the "formal commentaries" on the Constitution that were written as summaries of official pronouncements by proponents of the two major schools of constitutional interpretation before the Civil War--the nationalist Northern school as evidenced by the Marshall-Story decisions in the Supreme Court, and the Southern states rights advocates who lacked an equal spokesman. As this important study places the commentaries in a historical context by comparing their theories, examining their impact and their roots in the lives of the authors, it serves to illustrate "the early divergence between the North and South in theoretical discussions of the nature of the Union, and eventually lead to the constitutional justification of Southern secession." From the Preface.

Tracing the use of legal themes in the gothic novel, Bridget M. Marshall shows these devices reflect an outpouring of anxiety about the nature of justice. On both sides of the Atlantic, novelists like William Godwin, Mary Shelley, Charles Brockden Brown, and Hannah Crafts question the foundations of the Anglo-American justice system through their portrayals of criminal and judicial procedures and their use of found documents and legal forms as key plot devices. As gothic villains, from Walpole's Manfred to Godwin's Tyrrell to Stoker's Dracula, manipulate the law and legal system to expand their power, readers are confronted with a legal system that is not merely ineffective at stopping villains but actually enables them to inflict ever greater harm on their victims. By invoking actual laws like the Black Act in England or the Fugitive Slave Act in America, gothic novels connect the fantastic horrors that constitute their primary appeal with much more shocking examples of terror and injustice. Finally, the gothic novel's preoccupation with injustice is just one element of many that connects the genre to slave narratives and to the horrors of American slavery.

St. George Tucker's View of the Constitution, published in 1803, was the first extended, systematic commentary on the United States Constitution after its ratification. Generations learned their Blackstone and their understanding of the Constitution through Tucker. Clyde N. Wilson is Professor of History and editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun at the University of South Carolina. Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.

Papers of the National Bureau of Economic Research conference held at Dartmouth College on May 8-9, 2009.

Argues that the Founders intended the Constitution to be interpreted according to the text's meaning and its framers' original intentions.

Bentham, Jeremy. A Fragment on Government. Edited with an Introduction by F.C. Montague. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1891. xii, 241 pp. Reprinted 2001 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-166-6. Cloth. $65. * Bentham's first published work, an essay on sovereignty that criticizes Blackstone's Commentaries and attacks contemporary views on politics and law. This edition includes F.C. Montague's scholarly introduction that shows the significance of the Fragment and includes a biography of Bentham [1748-1832] and a discussion of his role in the history of jurisprudence. "The Fragment on Government is primarily a criticism. If it were nothing more, it would have no interest for later generations, which do not regard Blackstone as an authority upon speculative questions of politics or history, and therefore do not need to have Blackstone's theories corrected or disproved. But in criticizing Blackstone's views, Bentham necessarily expounds his own. As Bentham is one of the few English writers of mark upon the theory of political institutions, and as his doctrine forms a link in the chain of English political philosophy, we still read the Fragment of Government in order to see, not how far Blackstone was wrong, but how far Bentham was right.": Introduction 59.

In Constitutionalism, Executive Power, and the Spirit of Moderation, contributors ranging from scholars to practitioners in the federal executive and judicial branches blend philosophical and political modes of analysis to examine a variety of constitutional, legal, and philosophical topics. Part 1, "The Role of Courts in Constitutional Democracy," analyzes the proper functions and limits of the judiciary and judicial decision making in constitutional government. Part 2, "Law and Executive Authority," reflects on the tensions between constitutionalism and presidential leadership in both domestic and international arenas. Part 3, "Liberal Education, Constitutionalism, and Philosophic Moderation," shifts the focus to the relationship between constitutionalism and political philosophy, and especially to the modern modes of philosophy that most directly influenced the American Founders. A valuable resource for specialists, the book also will be of use in political science and law school classes.

Much of the legal system existing among the members of the society of nations has its origin in treaties and agreements. A substantial share of the mutually-binding precepts governing the relations among independent nations flows from the engage ments to which they subscribe. By crystallizing juridical rela tionships, this world-wide network of compacts helps to stabilize international affairs, and its growth and development are essen tial in the absence of an acceptable alternative law-creating in stitution. From the standpoint of international practice, independent states are empowered to conclude commitments on virtually any subject of mutual interest. Not in all cases, however, does the national government of a country possess internally a treaty making authority coextensive with that of the state under inter national law. Constitutional prescriptions may restrict the range of subjects respecting which treaties may be negotiated, and in addition, as in the case of the United States, the constitutive act may confine the government to a prescribed method of conclud ing international treaties. The problem of American treaty authority and procedure has been under analysis and serious debate since the United States constitutional system was established in the late eighteenth cen tury. As this country increased its participation in international affairs and augmented the network of international arrangements to which it became a party, this fundamental problem has be come increasingly significant.