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Constitution
About: Constitution is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37828 publications have been published within this topic receiving 435603 citations.
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: Larry Lessig's insightful Code seeks to warn longtime inhabitants of cyberspace of a major danger to the wild, unregulated, "1960s-like" environments to which they have grown accustomed and advocates collective decision making where code may have major consequences with respect to important societal liberties.
Abstract: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books, 1999, 230 pages. I. INTRODUCTION Just as Rachel Carson's classic Silent Spring awakened the world to environmental pollution in 1962, Larry Lessig's insightful Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace(1) (Code) seeks to warn longtime inhabitants of cyberspace of a major danger to the wild, unregulated, "1960s-like" environments to which they have grown accustomed. Code challenges the presumption of early Internet heroes, like John Perry Barlow, that technology has created an inherently free environment that can only remain so if governments leave it alone. Code observes, rather, that cyberspace is quite susceptible to alteration and that the gravest threats to online civil liberties in the United States are posed, not by laws, but by computer code--particularly those designed to commercialize the Web for e-commerce. Code explains how the business community's efforts (with government support) to make it easier to confirm cyberspace buyers' identities also unintentionally facilitate regulation of other conduct. Lessig's particular concern is with those civil liberties and other values central to American society, that the framers of the Constitution left without explicit legal protection; the limits of the technology of the time already safeguarded them. Now that the Internet and other new media have eliminated many physical and economic constraints on intrusive conduct-like the tracking of every page that an Internet suffer views--Code pleads for citizens to defend those privacy and other values they consider fundamental, lest they be diminished--if not eliminated--by code. In fact, the introduction of e-commerce-friendly Internet code is somewhat analogous to the genetic engineering of agricultural products. As Europeans--and increasingly Americans--have come to recognize, the manipulation of such basic codes may have widespread effects not limited to their targeted product markets or by national boundaries.(2) This has led many to demand public debate on the issue of what many call "Frankenfoods," and its effects on world ecosystems and human health. While Lessig certainly does not oppose e-commerce code, he advocates collective decision making where code may have major consequences with respect to important societal liberties. From an economist's perspective, Lessig understands that the "externalities" of e-commerce code--in terms of harm to social values--are too significant to expect private sector code writers to design a socially optimal architecture guided solely by Adam Smith's invisible hand. Rather, democratic principles require that, prior to the adoption of important varieties of what he terms "West Coast [computer],"(3) there be public discussions comparable to those associated with the adoption of "East Coast [legal] code."(4) Decisions about how much control over information society wants to allow and by whom, call for democratic decision making. With concerns similar to those of political activist Jeremy Rifkin,(5) Lessig implores citizens not to maintain blind faith in the social value judgments of the commercial marketplace where externalities may be given short shrift, if not ignored altogether, until irreversible harm is done. While Code focuses on issues arising from Internet technology, it also discusses the more general relationship between technology and law. Code observes that four principal forces regulate people's behavior: laws, norms, prices, and technology (although it calls the latter forces "market" and "architecture"). It explains how each of these limit individuals' actions, how the forces can work directly or indirectly in combinations, and how improvements in technology can dramatically alter the composite constraint on people's conduct. The middle third of Code is entirely devoted to identifying how technology--primarily the Internet--is significantly altering the net effect of these four forces on behaviors. …
150 citations
Book•
18 Oct 1973TL;DR: The Indian Constitution as mentioned in this paper provides a history of the Indian Constituent Assembly, of how and why the members of the Assembly wrote their constitution as they did, and a preface bringing it up to date with contemporary developments in constitutional law.
Abstract: "The Indian Constitution" provides a history of the Indian Constituent Assembly, of how and why the members of the Assembly wrote their constitution as they did. This new edition of Austin's classic work has a preface bringing it up to date with contemporary developments in constitutional law.
150 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1968
TL;DR: Lintott as mentioned in this paper examines the roots of violence in Republican law and society and the growth in violence in city war and the power of armies and suggests that this disaster was more the outcome of folly in the choice of political means than depravity in the choosing of ends.
Abstract: Why did the aristocracy of the Roman Republic destroy the system of government which was its basis? The answers given by ancient authorities are moral corruption and personal ambition. The modern student finds only too inevitable the causal nexus of political conflict, violence, military insurrection and authoritarian government. Yet before the era of intense violence Rome had an apparently stable constitution with a long history. In this revised edition of his classic book, for which he has written a new introduction, Andrew Lintott examines the roots of violence in Republican law and society and the growth of violence in city war and the power of armies. It suggests in conclusion that this disaster was more the outcome of folly in the choice of political means than depravity in the choice of ends.
149 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1982
TL;DR: The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically acclaimed volume-a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize-offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically acclaimed volume-a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize-offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic. Beginning with the French and Indian War and continuing to the election of George Washington as first president, Robert Middlekauff offers a panoramic history of the conflict between England and America, highlighting the drama and anguish of the colonial struggle for independence. Combining the political and the personal, he provides a compelling account of the key events that precipitated the war, from the Stamp Act to the Tea Act, tracing the gradual gathering of American resistance that culminated in the Boston Tea Party and "the shot heard 'round the world." The heart of the book features a vivid description of the eight-year-long war, with gripping accounts of battles and campaigns, ranging from Bunker Hill and Washington's crossing of the Delaware to the brilliant victory at Hannah's Cowpens and the final triumph at Yorktown, paying particular attention to what made men fight in these bloody encounters. The book concludes with an insightful look at the making of the Constitution in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 and the struggle over ratification. Through it all, Middlekauff gives the reader a vivid sense of how the colonists saw these events and the importance they gave to them. Common soldiers and great generals, Sons of Liberty and African slaves, town committee-men and representatives in congress-all receive their due. And there are particularly insightful portraits of such figures as Sam and John Adams, James Otis, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and many others. This new edition has been revised and expanded, with fresh coverage of topics such as mob reactions to British measures before the War, military medicine, women's role in the Revolution, American Indians, the different kinds of war fought by the Americans and the British, and the ratification of the Constitution. The book also has a new epilogue and an updated bibliography. The cause for which the colonists fought, liberty and independence, was glorious indeed. Here is an equally glorious narrative of an event that changed the world, capturing the profound and passionate struggle to found a free nation.
149 citations
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define the value of freedom as "the Creative Powers of a Free Civilization" and the common sense of progress as "freedom, reason, and tradition".
Abstract: Introduction Part 1: The Value of Freedom 1. Liberty and Liberties 2. The Creative Powers of a Free Civilization 3. The Common Sense of Progress 4. Freedom, Reason, and Tradition 5. Responsibility and Freedom 6. Equality, Value, and Merit 7. Majority Rule 8. Employment and Independence Part 2: Freedom and the Law 9. Coercion and the State 10. Law, Commands, and Order 11. The Origins of the Rule of Law 12. The American Contribution: Constitutionalism 13. Liberalism and Administration: The Rechtsstaat 14. The Safeguards of Individual Liberty 15. Economic Policy and the Rule of Law 16. The Decline of the Law Part 3: Freedom in the Welfare State 17. The Decline of Socialism and the Rise of the Welfare State 18. Labor Unions and Employment 19. Social Security 20. Taxation and Redistribution 21. The Monetary Framework 22. Housing and Town Planning 23. Agriculture and Natural Resources 24. Education and Research
149 citations