Abstract: Ro nald Dwor kin fa mously ar gued that the best in ter pre ta tion of a Cons ti tu tio... more Abstract: Ro nald Dwor kin fa mously ar gued that the best in ter pre ta tion of a Cons ti tu tion should both fit and jus tify the le gal ma te rials, for exam ple, the text, ori gi nal mea ning, and pre ce dents. In his re cent book, Against Obli ga tion (Har vard Uni ver sity Press, 2012), Abner S. Gree ne pro vo ca ti vely and crea ti vely bucks the ten den cies of cons ti tu tio nal theo rists to pro fess fi de lity with the past in cons ti tu tio nal in ter pre ta tion. He re jects ori gi na list un ders tan dings of obli ga tion to fo llow ori gi nal mea ning in in ter pre ting the Cons ti tu tion. And in deed he re jects in ter pre ti ve obli ga tion to fo llow pre ce dent. In this Essay I fo cus on Gree ne’s ar gu ments against in ter pre ti ve obli ga tion to the past, in par ti cu lar, his ar gu ment that even cons ti tu tio nal theo rists like Dwor kin and I give too much de fe ren ce or weight to ‘fit’ and pre ce dent, and not enough pri macy to ‘jus ti fi ca tion’ and ...
Abstract: Ro nald Dwor kin fa mously ar gued that the best in ter pre ta tion of a Cons ti tu tio... more Abstract: Ro nald Dwor kin fa mously ar gued that the best in ter pre ta tion of a Cons ti tu tion should both fit and jus tify the le gal ma te rials, for exam ple, the text, ori gi nal mea ning, and pre ce dents. In his re cent book, Against Obli ga tion (Har vard Uni ver sity Press, 2012), Abner S. Gree ne pro vo ca ti vely and crea ti vely bucks the ten den cies of cons ti tu tio nal theo rists to pro fess fi de lity with the past in cons ti tu tio nal in ter pre ta tion. He re jects ori gi na list un ders tan dings of obli ga tion to fo llow ori gi nal mea ning in in ter pre ting the Cons ti tu tion. And in deed he re jects in ter pre ti ve obli ga tion to fo llow pre ce dent. In this Essay I fo cus on Gree ne’s ar gu ments against in ter pre ti ve obli ga tion to the past, in par ti cu lar, his ar gu ment that even cons ti tu tio nal theo rists like Dwor kin and I give too much de fe ren ce or weight to ‘fit’ and pre ce dent, and not enough pri macy to ‘jus ti fi ca tion’ and ...
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