Two Views of International Trade in the Constitutional Order

Abstract

In this year of ambitious new trade agreements, public attention has turned once again to the relationship between the U.S. constitutional order and global commerce. Though they may seem strictly contemporary phenomena, neither "globalization" nor the many debates about it are new. Indeed, they were present in a strikingly similar form in the founding era. One of the many ways in which the Founders' Constitution differs from current constitutional practice is in the arena of international trade. The changing conception of the constitutional status of international trade tracks the changing place of the American republic in the world of commerce. It also reveals the international dimension of what Fishkin and Forbath describe as "constitutional political economy," both in the founding era and today.