Howard Dickman – författare

This book examines the constitutional protection of economic rights through the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth.The authors grapple with such questions as: how should the commerce clause be interpreted? To what extent did the historical development of eminent domain law depart from the "rhetoric" of takings jurisprudence? How was the Constitution connected to economic growth in the nineteenth century? What was the effect of the post-/civil War constitutional amendments? How did the right to contract affect government attempts to balance private rights with the public good? What was the reaction of leading constitutional theorists to the dominance of a laissez-fair philosophy in the Court and the nation at the turn of the century?

This book is a discussion of current trends in the constitutional protection of economic liberties. Since the mid-1930's, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to replace legislative judgements on matters of economic regulation with its own. While the Court permits wide legislative experimentation in the economic realm, it scrutinizes governmental attempts to regulate or abridge other civil liberties quite closely. This state of affairs is known as the "double standard." The question of the appropriateness of this unequal treatment by the Court of these two classes of liberties generates much of the controversy in this volume. Other topics dealt with include the current trends in (and relevance of) constitutional law for welfare rights, labor unions, and labor law. Recent Supreme Court decisions on property rights also receive much attention.

Here is what the Framers of the Constitution thought about economic rights. To the current debate over constitutional interpretation, this book adds a dispassionate examination of our beginnings. It focuses on the philosophical, political, and social currents that influenced the thought and behavior of the Framers.What was the relationship between property rights and liberty? How important to the Framers was the protection of economic liberties? In what ways does the Constitution protect these liberties? Was the Constitution a document forged with the intent of securing what would later be called a capitalist system? Or were the Framers primarily concerned with promoting a society based upon civic virtue? These are a few of the major themes that the authors of this volume address.