Keeping the Peoples' Liberties: Legislators, Citizens and Judges as Guardians of Rights - Hardcover

Dinan, John J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700609059 ISBN 13: 9780700609055

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1998

Synopsis

Which branch of government should be entrusted with safeguarding individual rights? Conventional wisdom assigns this responsibility to the courts, on the grounds that liberty can only be protected through judicial interpretation of bills of rights. In fact it is difficult for many people even to conceive of any other way that rights might be protected. John Dinan challenges this understanding by tracing and evaluating the different methods that have been used to protect rights in the United States from the founding until the present era. By analyzing the relative ability of legislators, citizens, and judges to serve as guardians of rights, Dinan's study demonstrates that each is capable of securing certain rights in certain situations.

About this title

Review

"A valuable dissertation on what civil liberties measures were being advanced at the state level during both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."Political Science Quarterly

"A strikingly original and persuasive reinterpretation of how rights have been safeguarded in the United States."American Political Science Review

"A calmly balanced and brilliantly incisive analysis which shows that state legislatures have performed as well as, and sometimes better than, federal and state courts in expanding and defending rights. Beyond those interested in the history of rights, courts as institutions, and constitutional law, this book will be profitable for those interested in state politics, American political theory, and democratic theory. Impressive and convincing."Donald S. Lutz, author of A Preface to American Political Theory

"We have grown accustomed to thinking that judicial review and judges are uniquely suited to protecting the people's rights and liberties. John Dinans important study demonstrates that this way of thinking, however familiar, substantially oversimplifies the lessons of the complex American experience."Michael J. Perry, author of The Constitution in the Courts: Law or Politics?

"This is a wonderful, eye-opening, and very important book. It sets our modern debate about the rights explosion in a new and useful perspective. I have studied and written about constitutional law for twenty years, and I have to say reading this was a revelation for me. It filled in the background that is missing in contemporary constitutional theory."Robert Nagel, author of Judicial Power and American Character

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700609059
• ISBN 13: 9780700609055
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272