Low Price Guarantee
We Take School POs
A Great Power of Attorney: Understanding the Fiduciary Constitution
Contributor(s): Lawson, Gary (Author), Seidman, Guy (Author)

View larger image

ISBN: 0700624252     ISBN-13: 9780700624256
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
OUR PRICE: $47.25  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: May 2017
* Out of Print *
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | Constitutions
- Political Science | American Government - National
- Law | Constitutional
Dewey: 342.730
LCCN: 2016055775
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6.4" W x 9.2" L (1.00 lbs) 240 pages
Features: Index
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
What kind of document is the United States Constitution and how does that characterization affect its meaning? Those questions are seemingly foundational for the entire enterprise of constitutional theory, but they are strangely under-examined. Legal scholars Gary Lawson and Guy Seidman propose that the Constitution, for purposes of interpretation, is a kind of fiduciary, or agency, instrument. The founding generation often spoke of the Constitution as a fiduciary document--or as a "great power of attorney," in the words of founding-era legal giant James Iredell. Viewed against the background of fiduciary legal and political theory, which would have been familiar to the founding generation from both its education and its experience, the Constitution is best read as granting limited powers to the national government, as an agent, to manage some portion of the affairs of "We the People" and its "posterity." What follows from this particular conception of the Constitution--and is of greater importance--is the question of whether, and how much and in what ways, the discretion of governmental agents in exercising those constitutionally granted powers is also limited by background norms of fiduciary obligation. Those norms, the authors remind us, include duties of loyalty, care, impartiality, and personal exercise. In the context of the Constitution, this has implications for everything from non-delegation to equal protection to so-called substantive due process, as well as for the scope of any implied powers claimed by the national government.

In mapping out what these imperatives might mean--such as limited discretionary power, limited implied powers, a need to engage in fair dealing with all parties, and an obligation to serve at all times the interests of the Constitution's beneficiaries--Lawson and Seidman offer a clearer picture of the original design for a limited government.


Contributor Bio(s): Lawson, Gary: - Gary Lawson is Philip S. Beck Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. He is coauthor with Guy Seidman of The Constitution of Empire: Territorial Expansion and American Legal History. Guy Seidman is a professor at the Radzyner School of Law, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.
 
Customer ReviewsSubmit your own review
 
To tell a friend about this book, you must Sign In First!