On this day in the year 1787, the American founding fathers, all thirty-nine of them, signed a document that became for better or worse, a text many has come to venerate and loathe through the ages. But the U.S. Constitution was also a model for many postwar constitutions of other nations, as we all know, though it was a negative model most of the time (consider the Canadian one or even the South African one). Nevertheless, as a student of the Western constitutional tradition, I just thought we should give credit where credit is due. After all, they transformed the idea of constitutionalism into the way we know it today.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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Yes, duly noted Anna!
ReplyDeleteOn a related subject, I was invited to speak at a middle school today on the occasion of Constitution Day. It was fun. The kids were great. I gave each of them a pocket constitution, courtesy of Westlaw.
The title of my talk was "The United States Constitution: For Bart Simpson, for Lisa Simpson, and for You."
I understand that the talk was video recorded. I will try to get a copy and post it online.
Anything about the Simpsons is worth my time--and yours!