Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2009
Summary
This book explores further ramifications of International Legal Constructionism (ILC), a theory of U.S. constitutional interpretation first presented in the 2004 issue of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. This interpretive theory argues that the U.S. Constitution is a treaty that must be construed in conformity with the United States' international legal obligations. One of ILC's claims is that the U.S. federal court system constitutes an international tribunal system. This book will elaborate on this claim and provide an international legal construction of different aspects of federal court jurisdiction, viz., judicial review authority, the authority to use international law, and the appropriate manner of using such law.
A striking feature about the present international legal order is the great and growing number of international tribunals. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, numerous international tribunals of varying types have been created. Although there were very few international tribunals before the twentieth century, two eighteenth-century international tribunal systems deserve special attention: the federal court systems respectively established under the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. Although the case law and academic literature providing an international legal construction of U.S. federal court jurisdiction is scarce, it is not unknown. Indeed, “[f]rom the earliest days of the Republic, American courts and commentators have relied on principles of … international law to limit judicial jurisdiction.”
This book will explore the implications of providing an international legal construction to federal judicial power.
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- Information
- The Constitution as TreatyThe International Legal Constructionalist Approach to the U.S. Constitution, pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007