The Interpretable Constitution.
Constitutional Commentary › Vol. 11 Nbr. 3, December 1994
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The Interpretable Constitution.
By William F. Harris 11.1 Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1993. Pp. xv, 208. Cloth, $38.50.
Rebecca L. Brown(2) What exactly is the Constitution? William Harris tantalizes with a promise to take up that question that has long daunted constitutional theorists. He rightly suggests that the question logically precedes any theory about how interpreters should read the document. A sense of excitement accompanies Harris' claim to have identified the nature of the Constitution in such a way as to provide a philosophical framework for objectively evaluating various approaches to constitutional interpretation. Some interpretative theories will be shown to be right, some wrong. At last, it appears, someone has set out to resolve H.L.A. Hart's important conundrum that there is "no rule providing criteria for the assessment of its own legal validity,"(3) which has had such poignant application to the field of constitutional interpretation. But the results are disheartening. Harris starts from the position that the constitutional debate over the last several decades has been misguided and lacking in moorings. The resulting discourse has thus become perversely rigid and riddled with unexamined assumptions, consequences that Harris--a political science scholar--attributes across the board to the study of law in general. Those who study and apply the law have done it wrong. Apparently legal academics, judges, and lawyers (and perhaps even Senators) all fall into the category of misdemeanants whom Harris, with palpable bitterness, collectively brands "professionalized law." The book has a real sense of "us" "them" hostility, peppered with territorial war metaphors to suggest that consti...See the full content of this document
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