Desperately seeking certainty : the misguided quest for constitutional foundations / Daniel A. Farber, Suzanna Sherry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Farber, Daniel A., 1950-

Contributor:

Sherry, Suzanna.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional law--United States.

Constitutional law.

Constitutional law--United States--Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (221 p.)

Edition:

Pbk. ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Ill. : University of Chicago Press, 2004, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Irreverent, provocative, and engaging, Desperately Seeking Certainty attacks the current legal vogue for grand unified theories of constitutional interpretation. On both the Right and the Left, prominent legal scholars are attempting to build all of constitutional law from a single foundational idea. Dan Farber and Suzanna Sherry find that in the end no single, all-encompassing theory can successfully guide judges or provide definitive or even sensible answers to every constitutional question. Their book brilliantly reveals how problematic foundationalism is and shows how the pragmatic, multifaceted common law methods already used by the Court provide a far better means of reaching sound decisions and controlling judicial discretion than do any of the grand theories.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

1 . Of Law and Latkes

2 . In the Beginning:Robert Bork and Other Originalists

3 . The Formalist Crusade of Antonin Scalia

4. Richard Epstein and the Incredible Shrinking Government

5 . Akhil Amar and the People's Court

6 . Bruce Ackerman's Magic Amendment Machine

7 . Ronald Dworkin and the City on the Hill

8 . Dethroning Grand Theory

Appendix

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-202) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612538377

9781282538375

1282538373

9780226238104

0226238105

OCLC:

615629391