Stephen Gerald Breyer (pronounced /ˈbraɪər/; born August 15, 1938) is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994, and known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court.[1]
Following a clerkship with Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1964, Breyer became well-known as a law professor and lecturer at Harvard Law School starting in 1967. There he specialized in the area of administrative law, writing a number of influential text books that remain in use today. He held other prominent positions before being nominated for the Supreme Court, including special assistant to the United States Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, and assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in 1973.
In his 2005 book Active Liberty, Breyer made his first attempt to systematically lay out his views on legal theory, arguing that the judiciary should seek to resolve issues to encourage popular participation in governmental decisions.
The Supreme Court is one of the most extraordinary institutions in our system of government. Charged with the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution, the nine unelected justices of the Court have the awesome power to strike down laws enacted by our elected representatives. Why does the public accept the Court’s decisions as legitimate and follow them, even when those decisions are highly unpopular? What must the Court do to maintain the public’s faith? How can the Court help make our democracy work? These are the questions that Justice Stephen Breyer tackles in this groundbreaking book.
Today we assume that when the Court rules, the public will obey. But Breyer declares that we cannot take the public’s confidence in the Court for granted. He reminds us that at various moments in our history, the Court’s decisions were disobeyed or ignored. And through investigations of past cases, concerning the Cherokee Indians, slavery, and Brown v. Board of Education, he brilliantly captures the steps—and the missteps—the Court took on the road to establishing its legitimacy as the guardian of the Constitution.
Justice Breyer discusses what the Court must do going forward to maintain that public confidence and argues for interpreting the Constitution in a way that works in practice. He forcefully rejects competing approaches that look exclusively to the Constitution’s text or to the eighteenth-century views of the framers. Instead, he advocates a pragmatic approach that applies unchanging constitutional values to ever-changing circumstances—an approach that will best demonstrate to the public that the Constitution continues to serve us well. The Court, he believes, must also respect the roles that other actors—such as the president, Congress, administrative agencies, and the states—play in our democracy, and he emphasizes the Court’s obligation to build cooperative relationships with them.
Finally, Justice Breyer examines the Court’s recent decisions concerning the detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, contrasting these decisions with rulings concerning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. He uses these cases to show how the Court can promote workable government by respecting the roles of other constitutional actors without compromising constitutional principles.
Making Our Democracy Work is a tour de force of history and philosophy, offering an original approach to interpreting the Constitution that judges, lawyers, and scholars will look to for many years to come. And it further establishes Justice Breyer as one of the Court’s greatest intellectuals and a leading legal voice of our time.
“通过保护少数群体的权利免受多数人侵扰,最高法院将‘成为支撑和维系美国民主的主要机构’。” ——Gordon Wood 本书作者斯蒂芬·布雷耶在书中提出过一个普遍存在的疑问:一群并不受民选控制、由总统直接任命、任期为终身制的的大法官们,获得了宪法的最终解释权,难道不是...
评分中国特色vs美国特色 开会还可以这样, 总统发言,法官可以不参加,在中国是不敢想象的。我单位开会都不能缺席,几乎不能请假。很多会都是劳民。
评分在《法官能为民主做什么》一书开头不久,作者斯蒂芬·布雷耶大法官提到他所经历的一个细节:一位非洲大法官困惑而羡慕地问他,“为什么法院说什么,美国人都会照办?”这个貌似天真的问题问得实在深刻,问出了很多国家——尤其是法治不健全的第三世界国家——民众的...
评分法国贵族托克维尔在其传世之作《论美国的民主》中有句名言:“在美国,几乎所有政治问题迟早都要变成司法问题。”托克维尔如此结论,旨在强调美国的法学家精神无所不在,“大部分公务人员都是或者曾经是法学家”,法学家精神“扩展到整个社会,深入到最低阶层,使全体人民都沾...
评分法官能为改革做些什么?——书评《法官能为民主做什么》 很久以前读过最高人民法院何帆的译作《法官能为民主做什么》,系现任美国联邦最高法院大法官斯蒂芬•布雷耶(Stephen Breyer)撰写的一本书,通过回顾“马伯里诉麦迪逊案”、“切诺基印第安人案”、“黑奴公民身份案”...
值得看一下。其他感触:1)美国人法律意识长期淡薄:宪法生效一个半世纪后还有政府官员和法院决定对着干,2)美国人权历史一片黑暗:撕毁和印第安人的协议,把人家从自己的地上赶走(trail of tears);二战时把日裔美国人关在集中营里。谁知道哪天会不会把所有的华裔也这么关起来。
评分明晚要在Rossabi的课上present一个有关联邦高法的opinion paper。先拿布雷耶挡一下~~
评分宪法书看多了一个样……
评分明晚要在Rossabi的课上present一个有关联邦高法的opinion paper。先拿布雷耶挡一下~~
评分权威 老生长谈 主流思想
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