The constitution of empire : territorial expansion and American legal history / Gary Lawson and Guy Seidman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lawson, Gary, 1958-

Contributor:

Seidman, Guy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imperialism--History.

Imperialism.

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

Constitutional law--United States.

Constitutional law.

United States--Territorial expansion.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--Philosophy.

United States--Territories and possessions--Politics and government.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (x, 271 p.))

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Constitution of Empire offers a constitutional and historical survey of American territorial expansion from the founding era to the present day. The authors describe the Constitution's design for territorial acquisition and governance and examine the ways in which practice over the past two hundred years has diverged from that original vision. Noting that most of America's territorial acquisitions-including the Louisiana Purchase, the Alaska Purchase, and the territory acquired after the Mexican-American and Spanish-American Wars-resulted from treaties, the authors elaborate a Jeffersonian-based theory of the federal treaty power and assess American territorial acquisitions from this perspective. They find that at least one American acquisition of territory and many of the basic institutions of territorial governance have no constitutional foundation, and they explore the often-strange paths that constitutional law has traveled to permit such deviations from the Constitution's original meaning.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Fundamentals: Lessons from Louisiana

2. Forms: Trouble with Texas?

3. Limits: Conquest and Colonialism

4. Constitutional Architecture I: Territorial Legislatures and Executives

5. Constitutional Architecture II: Territorial Courts

6. War and Peace: Military Occupation and Governance

7. Bulwark or Façade? The Rights of Territorial Inhabitants

Conclusion: Imperial Reflections

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-255) and index.

ISBN:

9786611729295

9781281729293

1281729299

9780300128963

0300128967

OCLC:

1024031099