Corwin on the Constitution

Edward S. Corwin (1878-1963) is widely recognized as the most eminent commentator on the Constitution in our century. Largely because Corwin died before he could write the single definitive work he had planned, the political scientist Richard Loss has spent over a decade compiling and editing a three-volume collection of Corwin's major essays.Loss has chosen twelve essays for the final volume that state Corwin's arguments in political thought and constitutional law. They are responsive to the theme of limitations on governmental power. The editor has organized the essays under the headings "The Limits of Governmental Power over Property and Business," "Governmental Action and Personal and Social Rights," and "A Nation and the States." He has also included Corwin's spirited and previously unpublished address "The New Deal in the Light of American Political and Constitutional Ideas."

Edward S. Corwin (1878-1963), universally acknowledged to be the most important commentator on the U.S. Constitution in the twentieth century, died before he could write the single definitive work he had planned. Richard Loss has devoted himself to the task of editing a three-volume collection (of which this is the second) of Corwin's major essays on the Constitution. The seventeen essays in Volume II focus on Article III (the judicial article) of the Constitution. They were, in Corwin's judgment, among his most important works. Thus this volume is a sequel both to Volume I, which treated Articles I and II of the Constitution, and to Presidential Power and the Constitution, in which Loss gathered most of Corwin's essays on the presidency.The editor has organized the essays under the headings "The Origins of Judicial Review," "The Development of Judicial Supremacy," "The Exercise of Judicial Review," and "Appraisals of Judicial Review." Each essay is reprinted in its entirety, including footnotes

I. The limits of governmental power over property and business -- The basic doctrine of American constitutional law -- Social insurance and constitutional limitations -- Social planning under the Constitution : a study in perspectives -- The New Deal in the light of American political and constitutional ideas -- II. Governmental action and personal and social rights -- Freedom of speech and press under the First Amendment : a résumé -- Bowing out "clear and present danger" -- The Supreme Court as national school board -- The Supreme Court's construction of the self-incrimination clause -- III. A nation and the states -- National power and state interposition, 1787-1861 -- The "full faith and credit" clause -- National-state cooperation : its present possibilities -- The passing of dual federalism.