1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910777855803321

Autore

Lawson Gary <1958->

Titolo

The constitution of empire [[electronic resource] ] : territorial expansion and American legal history / / Gary Lawson and Guy Seidman

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2004

ISBN

1-281-72929-9

9786611729295

0-300-12896-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource (x, 271 p.))

Altri autori (Persone)

SeidmanGuy

Disciplina

342.73/0413

Soggetti

Imperialism - History

Constitutional history - United States

Constitutional law - United States

United States Territorial expansion

United States Politics and government Philosophy

United States Territories and possessions Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-255) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Fundamentals: Lessons from Louisiana -- 2. Forms: Trouble with Texas? -- 3. Limits: Conquest and Colonialism -- 4. Constitutional Architecture I: Territorial Legislatures and Executives -- 5. Constitutional Architecture II: Territorial Courts -- 6. War and Peace: Military Occupation and Governance -- 7. Bulwark or Façade? The Rights of Territorial Inhabitants -- Conclusion: Imperial Reflections -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Constitution of Empire offers a constitutional and historical survey of American territorial expansion from the founding era to the present day. The authors describe the Constitution's design for territorial acquisition and governance and examine the ways in which practice over the past two hundred years has diverged from that original vision. Noting that most of America's territorial acquisitions-including the Louisiana Purchase, the Alaska Purchase, and the territory acquired after the Mexican-American and Spanish-American Wars-resulted from



treaties, the authors elaborate a Jeffersonian-based theory of the federal treaty power and assess American territorial acquisitions from this perspective. They find that at least one American acquisition of territory and many of the basic institutions of territorial governance have no constitutional foundation, and they explore the often-strange paths that constitutional law has traveled to permit such deviations from the Constitution's original meaning.