Const Law II: Constitutional Amendments in the United States and the World

• Semester: Fall 2019
• Course ID: 381C
• Credit Hours: 3
• Unique: 28325

Description

This course explores how constitutions around the world change and why reformers often break the rules the constitution establishes for its own amendment. We will use the United States Constitution as the basis for our comparative study of constitutional amendments around the world. Is the United States Constitution the world's most difficult to amend? Why doesn't the United States Constitution make anything unamendable, unlike other countries in the world, which protect human dignity, federalism, and secularism against amendment? What does the amendment process in the United States suggest about the most important constitutional values in this country? This course explains why no part of any constitution is more important than the rules we use to change it. And it reveals how constitutional amendment rules open a window into the soul of a constitution, exposing its deepest vulnerabilities and revealing its greatest strengths. Evaluation will be based on a floating final exam.