Democracy's Privileged Few: Legislative Privilege and Democratic Norms in the British and American Constitutions [Hardcover]

Josh Chafetz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2007

This book is the first to compare the freedoms and protections of members of the United States Congress with those of Britain’s Parliament. Placing legislative privilege in historical context, Josh Chafetz explores how and why legislators in Britain and America have been granted special privileges in five areas: jurisdictional conflicts between the courts and the legislative houses, freedom of speech, freedom from civil arrest, contested elections, and the disciplinary powers of the houses.
Legislative privilege is a crucial component of the relationship between a representative body and the other participants in government, including the people. In recounting and analyzing the remarkable story of how parliamentary government emerged and evolved in Britain and how it crossed the Atlantic, Chafetz illuminates a variety of important constitutional issues, including the separation of powers, the nature of representation, and the difference between written and unwritten constitutionalism.  This book will inspire in readers a much greater appreciation for the rise and triumph of democracy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Josh Chafetz manages to combine scholarly care with an almost journalistic ability to write in an accessible fashion."—Nick Barber, Oxford University 

(Nick Barber )

"A very distinguished work. Chafetz is beautifully clear and deals with an interesting problem concerning parliamentary government in Britain and America in a comparative manner. I do not know of any work which covers the ground in a similar way."—Vernon Bogdanor, Oxford University 

(Vernon Bogdanor )

"This book heralds the arrival of an important new scholar in the fields of comparative constitutional law and legal history. Fitting a broad range of institutional details into a comprehensive and subtle theoretical framework, Chafetz shows how Congressional privileges in America and Parliamentary privileges in England sprang from common origins but then evolved along separate paths as a result of basic differences in the political ecosystems. An excellent chronicle of the evolution of legislative privileges from the parliamentary supremacy of England to the popular sovereignty in kingless America."—Akhil Amar, Yale Law School

(Akhil Amar )

“A thorough and well-researched treatment of an important and neglected topic. Chafetz’s historical overview on legislative privilege deserves to become a well-known point of reference.”—Adrian Vermeule, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
 
 

(Adrian Vermeule )

About the Author

Josh Chafetz is a student at Yale Law School where he is an editor for the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Yale Law Journal. He received his doctorate in politics from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He has written for the New York Times Book Review, New Republic, Commentary, Weekly Standard, and other journals. He lives in New Haven.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300113250
• ISBN-13: 978-0300113259
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,462,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great contribution to an understudied field, January 6, 2007

By 

Stephen E. Sachs - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Democracy's Privileged Few: Legislative Privilege and Democratic Norms in the British and American Constitutions (Hardcover)

Democracy's Privileged Few is a careful, well-documented, and important study of an underappreciated topic in constitutional law. The legislative privileges protected by our Constitution are rarely discussed in courts, but they represent some of the most fundamental requirements of democratic self-government. Spanning from modern bribery scandals to freedom of speech, the power of Congress to imprison ordinary citizens, and medieval conflicts between the King and Parliament, Democracy's Privileged Few is an excellently written account of how legislative privilege emerged in the British Constitution and survived (or evolved) in the U.S. Constitution. Anyone with an interest in the foundations of American government would do well to read this book.