Louis Henkin – författare

This is Louis Henkin's classic book, long out of print, in a much-anticipated new edition. Reconceived, reorganized, and updated, this work remains a model of clarity. This new edition is essential reading for all those interested in understanding the United States and its place in world affairs. Professor Henkin takes the reader through the mysteries of the US Constitutional system as it governs US foreign relations. He explains how the US Government acts on the world scene - respective authority of the President and Congress in making foreign policy and conducting foreign relations, conflict and co-operation between them in determining the use of military force, and US policy on arms control, on the sale of arms, on trade, on financial assistance, on human rights. He explains where US treaties stand in US law and policy; the role of the courts in foreign affairs; US policy on the United Nations and other organizations, on international tribunals, what the Constituion requires in respect for individual rights within the US and beyond. Every reader will be able to follow and enjoy the text. For those who are interested there are many pages of rich, scholary notes.

This text explores the principal issues and developments, both in international human rights and in rights in the United States, and then compares the concepts and conditions of rights in various parts of the world. It pays particular attention to the role of US foreign policy.

In 1989, the people of the United States celebrated the bicentennial of their country's Constitution. At the same time Americans observed the continuing miasma of the Iran-Contra affair. Although we celebrated the longevity of the Constitution, the Iran-Contra affair can be seen as a result of the problems brought about by the fact that the framers of the Constitution envisioned a republic very much different from the United States today. Over the centuries each branch of the Federal government has aggrandized its consitutional powers, breeding constitutional controversy, instability, and occasional crisis. In Consitutionalism, Democracy, And Foreign Affairs Louis Henkin addresses a highly controversial yet neglected aspect of Consitutional jurisprudence -the governance of foreign affairs. Henkins examines whether our constitutional blueprint for the conduct of foreign affairs is appropriate to the democracy we have become, or whether it might be desirable to consider constitutional change.Looking first at the wrangling between Congress and the President for foreign affairs jurisdiction, including questions related to the controversial War Powers Act, Henkin then moves to the issue of the role of courts in foreign affairs of a republic that has become a democracy, and issues of individual rights arising out of foreign relations. He finds that in the conduct of foreign affairs we are particularly susceptible to the claims of "efficiency" -that we repose full faith in "the experts" for fear of appearing divided before the world. In the process, Henkin argues, we carelessly sacrifice the individual rights that the framers of the Constitution had hoped to insure. In conclusion, Henkin argues that it is ultimately the responsibility of the United States Congress to provide through new laws and institutions the Consitutional "rudder" that will "reaffirm our ancestral commitment to constitutionalism appropriate to our democracy, in a nuclear world in the Twenty-first century, the Third Century of the Constitution."

This book analyzes the evolution of the idea of human rights, the "universalization" of human rights as reflected in the spread of "constitutionalism" to almost all states. It focuses on the conditions that must exist if the rights of men and women are to be more secure in the future.

This book analyzes the evolution of the idea of human rights, the "universalization" of human rights as reflected in the spread of "constitutionalism" to almost all states. It focuses on the conditions that must exist if the rights of men and women are to be more secure in the future.