Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1993
Abstract
The aim of this Article is to introduce and clarify a new way of thinking about decisions in close cases, particularly those that address basic issues of constitutional law. When constitutional language fails to offer an unequivocal directive for decision, the recourse of the judge is not always to look "outward" toward overarching principles of political morality. In an illuminating array of cases, the acceptable way to resolve the disputes and to explain the results is to turn "inward" and reflect upon the legal culture in which the dispute is embedded. The way to understand this subcategory of decisions is to interpret them as expressions of the decision makers' constitutional identities.
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Law
Recommended Citation
George P. Fletcher,
Constitutional Identity,
14
Cardozo L. Rev.
737
(1993).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3695