Constitutional Diplomacy

by Michael J. Glennon

Book Overview

Challenging those who accept or advocate executive supremacy in American foreign-policy making, Constitutional Diplomacy proposes that we abandon the supine roles often assigned our legislative and judicial branches in that field. This book, by the former Legal Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is the first comprehensive analysis of foreign policy and constitutionalism to appear in over fifteen years. In the interval since the last major work on this theme was published, the War Powers Resolution has ignited a heated controversy, several major treaties have aroused passionate disagreement over the Senate's role, intelligence abuses have been revealed and remedial legislation debated, and the Iran-Contra affair has highlighted anew the extent of disagreement over first principles. Exploring the implications of these and earlier foreign policy disputes, Michael Glennon maintains that the objectives of diplomacy cannot be successfully pursued by discarding constitutional interests. Glennon probes in detail the important foreign-policy responsibilities given to Congress by the Constitution and the duty given to the courts of resolving disputes between Congress and the President concerning the power to make foreign policy. He reviews the scope of the prime tools of diplomacy, the war power and the treaty power, and examines the concept of national security. Throughout the work he considers the intricate weave of two legal systems: American constitutional principles and the international law norms that are part of the U.S. domestic legal system.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691023050
• ISBN13: 9780691023052
• Release Date: July 1991
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A Framework for Analysis

Glennon worked on the War Powers Resolution and knows a thing or two about the Constitutional limits in foreign affairs. The best reason to read this book is the Framework Glennon provides for Constitutional analysis. Have you ever tired of the debates between the various schools of constitutional interpretation? I have because all of the schools - well, most of them - have their uses depending on the circumstances. Glennon does not argue for one school or the other, but provides a hierarchy to order three levels of analysis. He then uses these levels (Textual, Case law/Custom, Original Intent/Functionalism) to analyze several areas of foreign affairs and the Constitution. I have found that his framework works just as well when grappling with constitutional problems outside the foreign affairs arena. Glennon's framework can be improved by adding a level that looks at the structure of the Constitution. This is sort of like using text in the sense that, like text, the structure is there for all to see and argue over. It is different from the textual level in that it is much less explicit. I use it at level 2 ½, but I' listen to an argument for other placement.