Constitutional Interpretation, Intelligent Fidelity, and (im)Perfection: on James E. Fleming’s Fidelity to our Imperfect Constitution

In this Article, I assess James E. Fleming’s Fidelity to Our Imperfect Constitution. For Moral Readings and Against Originalisms. For that purpose: in Part II, I reexamine Ronald Dworkin’s “moral reading”; in Part III, I reevaluate Fleming’s argument both “for moral readings and against originalisms...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Flores, Imer B.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:México
Institución:UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO
Repositorio:Problema. Anuario de Filosofía y Teoría del Derecho
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/11069
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.juridicas.unam.mx/index.php/filosofia-derecho/article/view/11069
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Constitutional interpretation
fidelity to the law
intelligent fidelity
interpretivism
moral reading
originalism
legal pragmatism
living constitutionalism
perfectionism
Ronald Dworkin
James E. Fleming
Lon L. Fuller
Descripción
Sumario:In this Article, I assess James E. Fleming’s Fidelity to Our Imperfect Constitution. For Moral Readings and Against Originalisms. For that purpose: in Part II, I reexamine Ronald Dworkin’s “moral reading”; in Part III, I reevaluate Fleming’s argument both “for moral readings and against originalisms”, which can be characterized as “fidelity to our imperfect constitution”; in part IV, I explicit three very helpful dichotomies to distinguish between moral readings, originalisms and legal pragmatism aka living constitutionalism: (1) fidelity and anti-fidelity; (2) interpretation and non-interpretation aka (re)construction, (re)invention and (judicial) legislation; and (3) perfectionimperfection. Additionally, I reintroduce Lon L. Fuller’s distinction between “intelligent and unintelligent fidelity”, to point out the kind of fidelity that moral readers and everyone else must adopt: an intelligent fidelity; and, finally, I present my general conclusion.