Customer Reviews

The Constitution and the Pride of Reason

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This is a delightful book. Professor Smith admits, in his introduction, that teaching con law often makes him feel "sleazy": constitutional interpretation is dismayingly unprincipled, based frequently on preference and expediency instead of text or precedent. Instead of becoming dismissive or cynical about this phenomenon (as have many of his colleagues), Smith inquires into the intellectual origins of interpretational freedom. This is a book about the allure and weakness of the 18th Century fetish of reason, an invitation to see modern constitutional creativity as a natural--and perhaps unfortunate--extension of "boastful" Enlightenment self-confidence. This is a complicated thesis, but Smith handles it deftly: he is irreverent without being dismissive and intelligent without being showy. Highly recommended for those who are troubled by judicial incoherence and/or the infection of constitutional law with the jargon of moral theory.