Pragmatist Constitutionalism in Comparative Perspective

David Landau, Legal Pragmatism and Comparative Constitutional Law, in Elgar Handbook on Comparative Constitutional Theory (forthcoming 2018), available at SSRN. Mark Kende Law is a practical field. It resolves concrete disputes. Constitutional law, however, is often thought of as more theoretical than practical. For example, a common current debate in constitutional interpretation is between originalism and living constitutionalism. Both have been advocated and criticized to death. Thus, Thomas Colby and Peter Smith have argued that originalism does not consist of one overarching theory, and that it leaves many questions unanswered. Self-proclaimed originalists disagree on some major issues and acknowledge that courts must often “construct” the right answers. But William van Alstyne has emphasized that living constitutionalists also have “clashing visions.” It is therefore a breath of fresh air to read David Landau’s forthcoming book…

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