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1. The Rise of the Admistrative State and Decline of Constitutional Morality

Author:
William Gangi
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Keep a highlighter and pen handy. I don’t recall the last time I used the former so frequently or made so many comments in a book’s margins. Each draft of this review has had a different emphasis. The conclusion I reached was this: the reader will have an incredible number of issues to mull over, and this review simply cannot discuss every worthwhile topic. Thus, while not a casual read, this volume certainly is a rewarding one. The book commences with a basic political insight: a constitution originating in one country may not be transplanted to another country and be expected to work in the same manner as it had in the country of origin. This book demonstrates the many reasons why that is so, and more particularly, how current legislative and executive practices have undermined the framers’ understanding of the rule of law. In sum, our nation’s governance has become increasingly arbitrary under a system the authors aptly describe as “quasi-law.”
Topic:
Governance, Constitution, State Building, Morality, and Administration
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

2. Constitutional Morality and the Emerging Social Imaginary of the Information Revolution

Author:
Kevin Lee
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
A recent report of the professional association for electrical engineers, IEEE (IEEE 2019), calls attention to the importance of technology for politics. It describes the aims of engineering the new legal information technology this way: “Ultimately, our goal should be eudiamonia, a practice elucidated by Aristotle that defines human well-being, both at the individual and collective level, as the highest virtue for a society” (IEEE 2019, 2). The association with the Aristotelian tradition of virtue ethics may at first seem surprising since the consumerist values of Silicon Valley typically run towards anti-teleological perspectives. But, as the report notes, the information and computing technologies (ICT) that are being developed are “specifically designed to reduce the necessity for human intervention in our day-to-day lives.” And for this reason, it is “raising concerns about their impact on individuals and societies” (IEEE, 3).
Topic:
Information Age, Constitution, Morality, and Social Order
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. A Response to Critics

Author:
Bruce P. Frohnen
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
My thanks to the participants in this symposium. I know that my co-author, George Carey, would be as gratified as I am at the serious consideration given, here, to Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law. At first I was puzzled by William Gangi’s summation of our book as one that addresses the adage that “a constitution originating in one country may not be transplanted to another country and be expected to work in the same manner as it had in the country of origin.” The book includes some comparative analysis of constitutions to show their reliance on the underlying culture for their success and the importance of the fit between tradition and text. Still, it focuses on the American Constitution, not on the application of any country’s constitution to other countries. Then again, as Gangi notes, in a more fundamental sense our book is about the interaction between the written constitution of the United States and the unwritten constitution of institutions, beliefs, and practices that shaped the American people, the American culture, and the constitutional morality that until fairly recently held officials to their public duties. This is a particular instance of the universal problem of “fit” between constitution and culture.
Topic:
Governance, Constitution, Legal Theory, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America