The Methods Of Changing The Constitutions Of The States, Especially That Of Rhode Island

In an era when written constitutions were still experimental, Charles S. Bradley asked a deceptively simple question: how should they be changed? The questions still matter today. In The Methods Of Changing The Constitutions Of The States, Especially That Of Rhode Island, he offers a lucid state constitutional law book that combines close legal reasoning with vivid historical context. Bradley analyses the methods of constitutional change and the state constitutional amendment process across the American states, then turns to 19th-century Rhode Island as a rich, contested case study. The result is an American legal history book that illuminates how legal forms, political forces and popular consent interact whenever a people seeks to refashion its fundamental law. As a primary source legal text written by a leading jurist of his day, it offers a direct view onto American state constitutional history and the history of the Rhode Island constitution in particular. Both a rigorous state constitutions study and an accessible law students reference and political science students resource, it rewards anyone interested in institutional design, democratic change and the evolution of state power. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Restored for today's and future generations. More than a reprint -- a collector's item and a cultural treasure. This classic constitutional studies reprint sits equally well on the shelf of the practising lawyer, the scholar and the collector who values enduring works of legal thought.