Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- I Contemporary American Society and Politics
- II Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Transatlantic Encounters
- III Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Foreign Policy
- IV Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Impact of American Values
- Lack of Arguments or a Common Sense: Reasons of the U.S. Supreme Court's Preferences to International Community in the Process of Constitutional Interpretation
- American Private Foundations: Global Philanthropy or Global Hegemony
- William Thomas Stead and His 1901 Vision of the Americanized World
- The United State's Influence in the Legal Systems of Eastern Europe: Romania's Right to a Good Administration
- American Concept of Federal Union and Its Worldwide Influence
- V Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Exceptionalism and Democracy Promotion
- VI Continuity and Change
Lack of Arguments or a Common Sense: Reasons of the U.S. Supreme Court's Preferences to International Community in the Process of Constitutional Interpretation
from IV - Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Impact of American Values
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- I Contemporary American Society and Politics
- II Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Transatlantic Encounters
- III Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Foreign Policy
- IV Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Impact of American Values
- Lack of Arguments or a Common Sense: Reasons of the U.S. Supreme Court's Preferences to International Community in the Process of Constitutional Interpretation
- American Private Foundations: Global Philanthropy or Global Hegemony
- William Thomas Stead and His 1901 Vision of the Americanized World
- The United State's Influence in the Legal Systems of Eastern Europe: Romania's Right to a Good Administration
- American Concept of Federal Union and Its Worldwide Influence
- V Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Exceptionalism and Democracy Promotion
- VI Continuity and Change
Summary
The U.S. Supreme Court is responsible for interpretation of the highest law in the United States, the federal Constitution. Throughout more than 200 years of its history, the Court has decided numerous cases shaping, reshaping and modifying many different clauses and provisions of the document. Among various methods of constitutional interpretation, most oft en the Justices have referred to the original intent of the Framers (historical interpretation), plain meaning of the document (textual interpretation), character of the analyzed institutions (structural interpretation), theoretical aspects of the issue (doctrinal interpretation) or they have imposed a balancing test of arguments which led to a so-called reasonable interpretation. In this process the Court has rarely referred to arguments stemming from the international community, and has hardly ever used them as a justification of particular decisions. Such a reluctant attitude towards arguments offered by the international community may prove the lack of legal necessity of the use of such arguments. However, there are a few examples of the Court's adjudication in which a reference to the international community became a significant part of the majority opinion, which may lead to the assumption that the Justices tend to use such arguments in the case of a highly political issue (Brown v. Board of Education) or in order to justify a major change in legal issues (death penalty cases). The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the most crucial opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Justices decided to settle the disputes in relation with arguments posed by the international community.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The United States and the WorldFrom Imitation to Challenge, pp. 223 - 240Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2009