Constitutional Brinksmanship: Amending the Constitution by National Convention

By Russell L. Caplan

Book Overview

In this first systematic study of the legal problems relating to the convention clause, Russell Caplan shows that repeated constitutional crises have given rise to state drives for a national convention nearly every twenty years since the Constitution was enacted. He deftly examines the politics of constitutional brinksmanship between Congress and the states to reveal the ongoing tension between state and federal rights and constitutional tradition and reform.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019505573X
• ISBN13: 9780195055733
• Release Date: December 1988
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Most helpful

I am the author of the Next American Revolution: How to Demand Congressional Reform Now. Indispensable to any study of Article V conventions, Caplan's book begins with a brief history of conventions in America. It ends with a discussion of the value of the uncertainty about conventions and how that uncertainty impacts state/federal relationships. In between he discusses the relationship of conventions to other branches of government, the processes of calling a convention, and many other nice nuggets of information. All the while he folds in a discussion of the Founding Fathers' 1787 convention and the political forces guiding the original and any possible modern convention. I'm very pleased to cite him as a reference in my book, because no discussion about Article V could lead Caplan's book out.