Download or read book What Should Constitutions Do? written by Ellen Frankel Paul and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-31 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume - written by prominent philosophers, political scientists and legal scholars - address the basic purposes of constitutions and their status as fundamental law. Some deal with specific constitutional provisions: they ask, for example, which branches of government should have the authority to conduct foreign policy, or how the judiciary should be organized, or what role a preamble should play in a nation's founding document. Other essays explore questions of constitutional design: they consider the advantages of a federal system of government, or the challenges of designing a constitution for a pluralistic society - or they ask what form of constitution best promotes personal liberty and economic prosperity.