Title: Constitutional domains : democracy, community, management /
Authors: Post, Robert, 1947-
Publisher: Harvard University Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Constitutional law Social aspects United States.; Sociological jurisprudence.; Constitutional law Social aspects; Sociological jurisprudence; Rechtssoziologie; Sozialer Wandel; Verfassungsrecht; Staatsrecht.; Sociale aspecten.; Rechtssociologie.; Staatkunde.; Droit constitutionnel Aspect social Etats-Unis.; Sociologie juridique; Rechtssoziologie.; Verfassungsrecht.; Sozialer Wandel.; United States; USA; USA.
Abstract: Drawing on work in sociology, philosophy, and political theory, Post demonstrates that the law establishes distinct and competing forms of social order: democracy, in which the law embodies the possibilities of collective self-determination; community, in which the law articulates and enforces a common social identity; and management, in which the law creates the conditions for accomplishing specific goals. Debates over the boundaries between these distinct domains, Post argues, are central to some of the most intractable problems of modern constitutional law. Here we see, for instance, how the controversy over the regulation of racist speech negotiates the boundary between communitarian and democratic forms of social ordering. We see how public forum doctrine, a crucial but notoriously mysterious component of First Amendment jurisprudence, arbitrates distinctions between the social domains of democracy and management.
Contents: Theories of constitutional interpretation -- The social foundations of privacy, community and self in the common law tort -- Cultural heterogeneity and law : pornography, blasphemy, and the first amendment -- The constitutional concept of public discourse : outrageous opinion, democratic deliberation, and Hustler magazine v. Falwell -- Between democracy and community : the legal constitution of social form -- Between governance and management : the history and theory of the public forum -- Meiklejohn's mistake : individual autonomy and the reform of public discourse -- Reprise : the racist speech problem.