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LIRA@BC Law

Abstract

In written celebration of Kent Newmyer’s intellectual and collegial influence, this essay argues that the written constitution was an emerging genre in 1787-1789. Discussions of the Constitution and constitutional interpretation often rest on a set of assumptions about the Constitution that arose in the years and decades after the constitutional Convention. The most significant one involves the belief that a fixed written document was drafted in 1787 intended in our modern sense as A Constitution. This fundamental assumption is historically inaccurate. The following reflections of a constitutionalist first lay out the argument for considering the Constitution as an emerging genre and then turn to Kent Newmyer’s important influence. The Essay argues that the constitution as a system or frame of government and the instrument were not quite one and the same. This distinction helps to make sense of ten puzzling aspects of the framing era.

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Bilder_Emerging_Genre_the_Constitution_A1b.pdf
6 Sep 2022
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Metadata

  • Subject
    • Constitutional Law

    • Legal History

  • Journal title
    • Connecticut Law Review

  • Volume
    • 52

  • Issue
    • 4

  • Pagination
    • 1263-1279

  • Date submitted

    6 September 2022