The Myth of Rights: The Purposes and Limits of Constitutional Rights - Softcover

Bhagwat, Ashutosh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199897743 ISBN 13: 9780199897742

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

What is a constitutional right? If asked, most Americans would say that it is an entitlement to act as one pleases - i.e., that rights protect autonomy. That understanding, however, is wrong; it is, indeed, The Myth of Rights. The role of constitutional rights in our society is structural. These rights restrain governmental power so as to maintain a balance between citizens and government, and an appropriately limited role for the State. Professor Bhagwat applies a structural approach to analyze many difficult constitutional controversies, and explains why this approach illuminates these disputes in ways that an autonomy-based approach cannot.

About this title

About the Author

Ashutosh Bhagwat is Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and then for Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. He has published many scholarly articles on subjects ranging from constitutional law to administrative law to the California Electricity Crisis. He lives in Moraga, California with his wife and two children.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199897743
• ISBN 13: 9780199897742
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 310