An Article V Convention of States as a C onstitutional Initiative at the Federal Level

Tomasz Wieciech

Abstract


Under Article V, Congress shall call a convention on the application of two-thirds of state legislatures. Convention of states has never been called, despite a number of attempts. An Article V convention has become a specific form of constitutional initiative at the federal level. It serves primarily as a convenient way to pressure Congress to propose an amendment and not to actually make federal legislature call a convention. Such a use of an Article V convention has not been very effective and only rarely proved to be successful.


Keywords


United States, constitutional amendment procedure, convention of states

Full Text:

PDF

References


Bonfield, A.E., 1968, The Dirksen Amendment and the Article V Convention Process, “Michigan Law Review”, 66 (5), pp. 949–1000.

Caplan, R.S., 1988, Constitutional Brinkmanship. Amending the Constitution by National Convention, Oxford University Press, New York–Oxford, pp. 45, 50, 63–65.

Castro, D., 1986, A Constitutional Convention: Scouting Article Five’s Undiscovered Country, “University of Pennsylvania Law Review”, 134 (4), pp. 949–950.

Desilver, D., 2018, Proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution seldom go anywhere, http://www.pewresearch.org (access: 30.04.2018).

Diamond, A.S., 1981, A Convention for Proposing Amendments: The Constitution Other’s Method, “Publius. The Journal of Federalism”, 11 (3/4), pp. 122–123.

Elliot, J. (ed.), 1836, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vols. 3, 4, Washington, pp. 49–50, 177.

Farrand, M. (ed.), 1911, The Records of Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. 2, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 188, 558–559, 629.

Hamilton, A., 1788 [2003], Federalist no. 85. In: The Federalist Papers, Signet Classic, New York.

Kaminski, J.P, Saladino, J.G., Leffler, R., Schoenleber, Ch.H., Carlson, M. (ed.), 1993, The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Vol. 10. Ratification of the Constitution by the States: Virginia (3), State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, p. 1766.

Kyvig, D.E., 2002, Everett Dirksen’s Constitutional Crusades, “Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society”, 95 (1), p. 79.

Lash, K.T., 1994, Rejecting Conventional Wisdom: Federalist Ambivalence in the Framing and Implementation of Article V, “American Journal of Legal History”, 38 (2), p. 214.

Maier, P., 2010, Ratification. The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788, Simon and Schuster, New York.

Natelson, R.G., 2010, Learning from Experience: How the States Used Article V Applications in America’s First Century (Part 2 in a 3 Part Series), Policy Brief, No. 10-06, pp. 18–21.

Rogers, J.K., 2007, The Other Way to Amend the Constitution: The Article V Constitution Amendment Process, “Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy”, 30 (3), p. 1020.

Thorpe, F.N. (ed.), 1909, The Federal and State Constitutions, Vol. 2, Government Printing Office, Washington, p. 785.

Tucker St., G. 1803 [1999], View of the Constitution of the United States, [in:] View of the Constitution of the United States With Selected Writings, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, p. 306.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/teka.2018.13.1.71-83
Date of publication: 2018-12-19 11:40:41
Date of submission: 2018-12-19 10:36:39


Statistics


Total abstract view - 924
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 455

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Tomasz Wieciech

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.