Constitutional Dictatorship: Its Dangers and Its Design
Constitutional dictatorship, far from being a contradiction in terms, has been an important feature of republican governments since Roman times. This essay describes the basic idea of a constitutional dictatorship, and discusses those elements of constitutional dictatorship that already exist in the American constitutional system, particularly in the modern presidency. A constitutional dictatorship is a system (or subsystem) of constitutional government that bestows on a certain individual or institution the right to make binding rules, directives, and decisions and apply them to concrete circumstances unhindered by timely legal checks to their authority. The Roman dictatorship limited the time of the dictatorship and separated the institution that declared the emergency from the person who exercised power. The American pattern has been quite different. Generally speaking, the President announces the existence of a crisis or emergency, and, at the President's request, the Congress generally bestows new statutory grants of power. These new powers are usually never repealed and are banked away for future use, sometimes in very different contexts. The American pattern of constitutional dictatorship does not involve the executive claiming the right to transcend the law; instead Congress grants ever more practically unreviewable discretion to the executive. In addition, a significant feature of American constitutionalism is the rise of "distributed dictatorships," in which executive power is spread among a number of de facto dictators, each with its own special expertise. The modern administrative state increasingly spreads unreviewable power among a variety of different agencies, czars, and bureaucrats. The Federal Reserve's response to the recent economic crisis and the Centers for Disease Control's powers to impose quarantines are examples. The essay concludes with some suggestions for counteracting the more dangerous tendencies in the American pattern of constitutional dictatorship. Although emergencies often cannot be foreseen in advance, the structural features of emergency power must be designed in advance to preserve republican government.
Jimmy Doolittle: Cincinnatus of the Air
Abstract : This study evaluates Jimmy Doolittle's unique influence on the evolution of air power in the United States Air Force. As one of the most well-known airmen of the twentieth century, Doolittle is the subject of a significant number of books and articles. Despite their many virtues, these efforts have failed to explore the implications of Doolittle's unconventional career, which navigated the military, industrial, and academic communities. For instance, historians have largely overlooked the reserve officers performance as commander of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. Scholarly examinations have also failed to evaluate his role in founding the Air Force Association (AFA) and advocating for an independent Air Force.
The Protection of the Right to Education by International Law: Including a Systematic Analysis of Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. International Studies in Human Rights, 82.
[In view of the trend of demoting education from ”human right” to “human need” and the accompanying commercialisation of education, and the complex nature of the right to education under international law, entailing a freedom and a social aspect, this book seeks to affirm education as a “human right” and to describe the various state duties flowing from the right to education, by referring to the provisions on the right to education found in instruments of international law and by systematically analyzing article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights., In view of the trend of demoting education from ”human right” to “human need” and the accompanying commercialisation of education, and the complex nature of the right to education under international law, entailing a freedom and a social aspect, this book seeks to affirm education as a “human right” and to describe the various state duties flowing from the right to education, by referring to the provisions on the right to education found in instruments of international law and by systematically analyzing article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.]