New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms

New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms, edited by James A. Gardner and Jim Rossi, projects a new vision for state constitutional law through a collection of essays that reflect a shift in legal thinking about the relationship between national and subnational systems of constitutional law. This work charts a new course that gives voice to a recent, rising chorus of dissent among scholars and judges, namely that national and subnational systems of constitutional law cannot be adequately understood in isolation from one another. To the contrary, they are linked in a web of jurisprudential, social, and pragmatic connections structured by the American system of federalism. Here, multiple layers of constitutional law function together in a complex, interdependent process in which constitutional norms are developed, articulated, and enforced. The essays illuminate the role that state constitutions must play in any theory of federalism, and exemplify a fresh approach to state constitutionalism by discussing a range of issues, including recent debates regarding state constitutional protections for same-sex marriage. The entire work embraces the struggle between state and national power for dominance in American law and places both on equal ground. It contends that constitutional meaning in a federal system is never static and that it evolves over time. In addition to covering methods of judicial review, it discusses the handling of constitutional claims by courts at the state and national level and closely examines the way that courts and constitutions protect individual rights in a federal system.

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Dual Enforcement of Constitutional Norms Chapter 2: Cool Federalism and the Life-Cycle of Moral Progress Chapter 3: "States of the Same Nature": Bounded Variation in Subfederal Constitutionalism Chapter 4: Why Federalism and Constitutional Positivism Don't Mix Chapter 5: State Constitutionalism and the Scope of Judicial Review Chapter 6: Same-Sex Marriage and the New Judicial Federalism: Why State Courts Should Not Consider Out-of-State Backlash Chapter 7: Enforcement of Rights in a Post-Erie World Chapter 8: Dual Constitutions and Constitutional Duels Chapter 9: State Common Law and the Dual Enforcement of Constitutional Norms Index

About the Author :
James A. Gardner is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice at the University at Buffalo Law School, State University of New York, where he also directs the Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy. He is the author of: Of Interpreting State Constitutions: A Jurisprudence of Function in a Federal System (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and nearly two dozen articles and chapters on state constitutional law and subnational constitutionalism. Jim Rossi is the Harry M. Walbosky Professor and Associate Dean for Research at Florida State University College of Law. He is author of numerous articles on state constitutional and administrative law, with a particular focus on state implementation of federal regulatory standards and programs. His books include Regulatory Bargaining and Public Law (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and a casebook, Energy, Economics and the Environment (Foundation Press, 3d ed. 2010) (with Fred Bosselman, Joel Eisen, David Spence and Jacqueline Lang Weaver).

Review :
"This is an outstanding collection of essays on the problems posed by the fact that too often constitutional theorists and teachers focus exclusively on the United States Constitution while ignoring the constitutions of the fifty states. In reality, American constitutional law embraces both the national constitution and the state constitutions. The essays are all truly illuminating, deserving wide readership and, more importantly, discussion of their often challenging arguments." --Sanford Levinson University of Texas Law School and Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin "This work breaks important new ground in constitutional law. Although the federal Constitution provided exclusive focus for most of our history, more recently state constitutions have drawn attention, but were distinguished from the federal document and analyzed separately. These essays, written by leading figures in state constitutional law and federalism, refocus the analysis and reveal the more complex, interrelated and evolving nature of American constitutional federalism. They will be essential to future discussions of state and federal constitutional law." --Robert F. Williams Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers University School of Law, Camden "This work is an essential resource for anyone interested in the study of state constitutional law. Essays authored by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field set forth the innovative thesis that state and federal constitutional law must be viewed together as partners in a complex, collective enterprise of constitutional self-government, rather than as distinct areas of jurisprudence. The work both fundamentally rewrites our theoretical understanding of state constitutional law while providing fresh new and important insights into such topical issues as the constitutionality of prohibitions on same-sex marriage and the role of the states in enforcing federal regulatory mandates." --William P. Marshall Kenan Professor of Law, University of North Carolina