Constitutional Change in the American Experience

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Change is fundamental to the design of the United States Constitution and yet the nature of legitimate constitutional revision remains intensely controversial. One of the most significant features of the U.S. Constitution is that its framers embraced the idea of its mutability from the very beginning. The architects of the American constitution accepted that future generations must be free to renegotiate the basic charter by which they were governed, both because latent defects in the original design would inevitably be revealed and because social needs and circumstances would inevitably evolve. “[T]he plan now to be formed will certainly be defective,” acknowledged George Mason at the 1787 constitutional convention. “Amendments therefore will be necessary, and it will be better to provide for them, in an easy, regular and Constitutional way than to trust to chance and violence.” Accordingly, alongside the distinct sections (or “Articles”) of the Constitution defining the powers of the President, the legislature, and the courts, the framers included a separate section defining two methods for amending the Constitution. This receptivity to revision is now often taken for granted by Americans, but it is a notable departure from the assumptions of many other legal cultures which have regarded fundamental law as permanent and unchanging.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. Constitutional Revision by Formal Amendment: The Article V Process
• Ⅱ. Constitutional Revision By Other Means: Shifting Constitutional Norms and the “Living Constitution”
• Ⅲ. Conclusion

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Max Farrand, "The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 1" 202-203, 1937

2 Stephen M. Griffin, "Constitutionalism in the United States: From Theory to Politics. in: in Responding to Imperfection" 49-50,

3 Erwin Chemerinsky, "Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies7 (3d ed.)" 2006

4 Sara Pendergast, "Constitutional Amendments: From Freedom of Speech to Flag Burning xlviii" 2001