Freedom and Time: A Theory of Constitutional Self-Government

Jed Rubenfeld

Published by Yale University Press 2008

Freedom and Time

A Theory of Constitutional Self-Government

Jed Rubenfeld

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300129427

Overview
Contents

About this book

Should we try to live in the present”? Such is the imperative of modernity, Jed Rubenfeld writes in this important and original work of political theory. Since Jefferson proclaimed that the earth belongs to the living”since Freud announced that mental health requires people to get free of their past”since Nietzsche declared that the happy man is the man who leaps” into the momentmodernity has directed its inhabitants to live in the present, as if there alone could they find happiness, authenticity, and above all freedom.

But this imperative, Rubenfeld argues, rests on a profoundly inadequate, deforming picture of the relationship between freedom and time. Instead, Rubenfeld suggests, human freedomhuman being itself-necessarily extends into both past and future; self-government consists of giving our lives meaning and purpose over time. From this conception of self-government, Rubenfeld derives a new theory of constitutional law’s place in democracy. Democracy, he writes, is not a matter of governance by the present will of the people” it is a matter of a nation’s laying down and living up to enduring political and legal commitments. Constitutionalism is not counter to democracy, as many believe, or a pre-condition of democracy; it is or should be democracy itself--over time. On this basis, Rubenfeld offers a new understanding of constitutional interpretation and of the fundamental right of privacy.

Author / Editor information

Jed Rubenfeld is Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Part I: LIVING IN THE PRESENT
1. The Moment and the Millennium Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. The Age of the New Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3. Constitutional Self-Government on the Model of Speech Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
4. The Antinomies of Speech-Modeled Self-Government Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
Part II: BEING OVER TIME
5. Commitment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
6. Reason Over Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
7. Being Over Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
8. Popularity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Part III: CONSTITUTIONALISM AS DEMOCRACY
9. Constitutionalism as Democracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
10. Reading the Constitution as Written: Paradigm Case Interpretation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
11. Sex Discrimination and Race Preferences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	196
12. The Right of Privacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 272

eBook

Published: October 1, 2008
ISBN: 9780300129427