Abstract

Recent issues of prestigious law reviews are filled with articles discussing the merits and pitfalls of a reconstituted republican jurisprudence. The discussion ranges from neo-conservative attempts to resurrect the ideal of “the contract” and “consent” of some forms of republican thought to a neo-leftist rebirth of the ideals of communitarianism and participatory democracy of the New England town meeting. Andrew Fraser's new book draws on previous work to provide a “political architecture” (39) for a new version of a Federal polity in which civic virtue will be restored. As a contribution to the still raging debate over the utility and availability of republican ideals for progressive legal theory, The Spirit of the Laws deserves to be carefully considered, especially because it attempts to offer those who work within the “British” — as opposed to the “American” — legal tradition, a point of relevant access to a possible constitutional alternative.