Gary L. McDowell – författare

For much of its history, the interpretation of the United States Constitution presupposed judges seeking the meaning of the text and the original intentions behind that text, a process that was deemed by Chief Justice John Marshall to be 'the most sacred rule of interpretation'. Since the end of the nineteenth century, a radically new understanding has developed in which the moral intuition of the judges is allowed to supplant the Constitution's original meaning as the foundation of interpretation. The Founders' Constitution of fixed and permanent meaning has been replaced by the idea of a 'living' or evolving constitution. Gary L. McDowell refutes this new understanding, recovering the theoretical grounds of the original Constitution as understood by those who framed and ratified it. It was, he argues, the intention of the Founders that the judiciary must be bound by the original meaning of the Constitution when interpreting it.

For much of its history, the interpretation of the United States Constitution presupposed judges seeking the meaning of the text and the original intentions behind that text, a process that was deemed by Chief Justice John Marshall to be 'the most sacred rule of interpretation'. Since the end of the nineteenth century, a radically new understanding has developed in which the moral intuition of the judges is allowed to supplant the Constitution's original meaning as the foundation of interpretation. The Founders' Constitution of fixed and permanent meaning has been replaced by the idea of a 'living' or evolving constitution. Gary L. McDowell refutes this new understanding, recovering the theoretical grounds of the original Constitution as understood by those who framed and ratified it. It was, he argues, the intention of the Founders that the judiciary must be bound by the original meaning of the Constitution when interpreting it.

Challenging the fashionable belief that the Constitution should be interpreted in relation to the times, the distinguished contributors to Our Peculiar Security argue that the Constitution has a dual character. On the one hand it is law, in a binding and judicially enforceable sense. On the other hand, it is a decidedly political document.

An international collection of the world's most distinguished historians and political philosophers takes a fresh look at the political, legal, and philosophical contributions of Thomas Jefferson. The insightful essays analyze and illuminate the sophisticated layers of the political and legal thought of America's most influential and intellectually complex Founder. With contributors that include Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Morton Frisch, Paul Rahe, James Stoner, Robert K. Faulkner, John Zvesper, Howard Temperly, Robert A. Rutland, Raoul Berger, Colin Bonwick, Peter Parish, Jeffrey Sedgwick, J. R. Pole, Richard King, and Jean M. Yarborough, this is essential reading for historians and political philosophers.

This volume about juvenile delinquency in the United States and United Kingdom includes a foreword, nine chapters organized in three parts, and an afterword. Presented in the final chapters in Part III are suggestions for reform in school, and juvenile justice setting that recognize the importance of character in causing delinquency.