Constitutional Scholarship in the United States

Abstract

The status and character of constitutional scholarship depends upon the nature of constitutional law. In the United States, the content of constitutional law is typically negotiated within a dialogue between the Supreme Court and the American people. Constitutional scholarship accordingly seeks to mediate this dialogue by clarifying the systematic and jurisprudential implications of potential constitutional developments. In Europe, constitutional law is more independent of political dialogue; hence constitutional scholarship is relatively more autonomous. Whereas European constitutional scholars imagine their project as the development of an apolitical and internally coherent structure of constitutional norms, American constitutional scholars tend to develop theory in the context of its practical implications for case-by-case adjudication.