Prologue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2009
Summary
In 1789, the First Congress gave custody and charge of the U.S. Constitution to the Department of Foreign Affairs – the predecessor to the State Department. This bit of historical trivia may strike many as being somewhat odd. After all, why would Congress place the Constitution in the custody of a department charged with managing the foreign affairs of our country? Would it not have made more sense to place the Constitution with a departmentunderthe supervision ofCongress or with the Supreme Court – the branches of our federal government that respectively make and interpret U.S. law? Only that part of U.S. law that concerns other nations – namely, treaties – should have been placed in custody of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Constitution is not a treaty. Or, is it?
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- The Constitution as TreatyThe International Legal Constructionalist Approach to the U.S. Constitution, pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007