Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
The late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been aptly called the “Age of Codifications.” The same period was also the Age of Constitutions. Although a great deal is known about the migration of prenational and transnational legal sources and ideas that led to national codes of civil and criminal law in Europe and the Americas, much less is known about similar processes on the constitutional level. Constitutional historians have been more parochial than their private law counterparts, most likely because of the relationship between constitutions and nations. In the light of independence, nations immediately needed constitutions to solidify gains and to consolidate state power. The study of these processes becomes national narratives, often in conversation with the former colonial power, which are disconnected from more general or regional trends. As Linda Colley's article in this issue illustrates, it is important to step back to view the constitution-making process from an Atlantic perspective that ties the Americas, North and South, into the area of study. The Age of Constitutions in the Americas must include Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recommended Citation
M. C. Mirow, The Age of Constitutions in the Americas, 32 Law & Hist. Rev. 229-235 (2014). doi:10.1017/S0738248014000054.
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legal History Commons
