Tag: US Constitution

 Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Jude M. Pfister on George Washington and the Beginnings of American Law

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews Morristown National Historical Park preservationist and JAR contributor  Jude M. Pfister about the fascinating role played by President George Washington in shaping American law and interpreting the US Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]

by Editors
10
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

Constitutions and the Rule of Law: Ten Voices from America’s Founding Period

The idea that no one is above the law is a long-held and repeated precept of American constitutionalism. Its roots go back to the philosophical and historical foundations of western political thought. Holding a prominent place in this history is the thirteenth-century English Magna Carta. Although it does not explicitly use the phrase, the document—a […]

by Jett Conner
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

Illuminating the Republic: Maritime Safety and the Federalist Vision of Empire

The national government under the Federal Constitution effectively began its reign on April 6, 1789, as an invisible and unremarkable presence in the lives of most ordinary Americans.[1] The army boasted about 750 men stationed mainly on the western frontier, there were no national buildings, roads or even construction sites, while few federal bureaucrats and […]

by Shawn David McGhee
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

Early Presidential Elections: The Questionable Use of Electors to Correct Voter Imbalances

An important issue that the Congressional delegates faced when drafting the Constitution was how to create an equitable balance in voting rights between the larger states (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia) and the smaller ones (Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire). Although the delegates were sworn to secrecy throughout their debates (May through September 1787), once the debates were […]

by Marvin L. Simner
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

Religious Liberty and the American Founding

BOOK REVIEW: Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meaning of the First Amendment Religion Clauses by Vincent Phillip Muñoz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022) We are told in the Declaration of Independence that certain rights are “unalienable.” Have you ever wondered what that means? Are other rights “alienable?” Notre Dame’s […]

by Gabriel Neville
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

Review: Two Revolutions and the Constitution

BOOK REVIEW: Two Revolutions and the Constitution: How the English and American Revolutions Produced the American Constitution by James D. R. Philips (Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2021) In his concise Two Revolutions and the Constitution, the Australian lawyer and law professor James D. R. Philips traces the roots of the American Founding back to England’s Glorious […]

by Jeff Broadwater
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: James D. R. Philips on the Influence of the English Revolution on the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and historian James D. R. Philips on his research about the influence of the English Revolution on the ideals of the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]

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Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Haimo Li on an Important Contribution of Maryland to the US Constitution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews political scientist and JAR contributor Haimo Li on how the Maryland declaration of rights outlawed ex post facto laws—and how that state’s delegation got this important clause into the US Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]

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2
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

The Intellectual Origin of the US Constitution Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3: An Important Contribution from Maryland

Scholars generally view that the Framers of the United States Constitution “recalled the historical tyrannies of Great Britain and France in establishing the prohibitions against ex post facto laws (laws having retroactive effect) and bills of attainder (forfeiture of property and civil rights without due process).”[1]  In reality, things are more complicated than this simple […]

by Haimo Li