Prospects for Constitutional Government

By James Constant

Jurisprudence. Philosophy of Law. Uncertainty of Law and Constitutional Government. This book looks at Prospects for Constitutional Government: War and Peace; Limited Government and Individual Rights; Pax Americana; Wealth and Change; Right to Self Defense

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Constant
• Release date: Oct 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301569205

James Constant

writes on law, government, mathematics and science, as they are and as they should be

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Prospects for Constitutional Government

By James Constant

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 1993,2013 by James Constant

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Table of Contents

War and Peace

Limited Government and Individual Rights

Pax Americana

Wealth and Change

Right to Self-Defense

PROSPECTS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

Hobbes (1588 1679 A.D.) said that peace was the only purpose of law, and he gave the sovereign absolute authority. [409]By reducing law to will, realism came to the same conclusion.[410] In the pure theory and in analytical jurisprudence, peace appears to be the only criterion for judging a legal system.[411] All modern legal writers therefore, the so called positivists, conclude by their studies that peace is the purpose of law. This conclusion coincides with that of the ruler who makes peace the purpose of law in order to protect its interests, by maintaining control and staying in power. Lenin (1870 1924 A.D.), a lawyer, proclaimed that law is a political measure and politics and his disciple Mao (1893 1976 A.D.) said that justice is what comes from the barrel of a gun. Only Letwin (1924 1993 A.D.) says that there is something more to the law, namely, a preferable authority whose limits are prescribed by constitutional and substantive law to perfect the individual.[412] Justice Brandeis (1856 1941 A.D.) reminded us that those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty. [413] Liberty, of course, does not consist in mere general declarations of the rights of men. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action.[414] We therefore have two entirely different theories for the purpose of law, namely, peace and preferable authority.

History and observation teach that peace occurs infrequently and is the exception to the rule of conflict. But even in times of peace, the ruler is preoccupied with his desire to stay in power and the ever present internal and external threats to that power. Peace and keeping the peace is any ruler's first preoccupation. We have already seen that many natural