Common Good Constitutionalism. Adrian Vermeule
“Elegant, insightful, magisterial: Adrian Vermeule has written an instant classic of scholarship, exposing the poverty of today’s prevailing legal theories, left and right, and pointing us to a better alternative – one as vibrant and radical as the Western tradition.”
Sohrab Ahmari, author of The Unbroken Thread and From Fire, by Water
“You are holding that rarest of books, one that will change minds, change the terms of debate, and change the future. Adrian Vermeule has written the most important and original book on constitutional theory for this generation. Future scholars, lawyers, and citizens will look back at this book for having sounded the death knell of the seemingly unassailable camps of conservative ‘originalism’ and progressive ‘living constitutionalism,’ revealing them to be exhausted sides of the same devalued liberal coin. More importantly, this book charts a new and better path – a common good constitutionalism grounded in the classical tradition but repurposed for the revitalization of a declining but redeemable republic.”
Patrick J. Deneen, University of Notre Dame, author of Why Liberalism Failed
“This is the most important book of American constitutional theory in many decades. Adrian Vermeule unearths the entirely forgotten classical legal tradition – a mix of Roman law, canon law, and civil law – which dominated judicial thinking from the founding until positivism began to consume constitutional law in the early twentieth century. He exposes the dominant originalist paradigm as an impoverished Johnny-come-lately to the constitutional scene. And he powerfully demonstrates how the classical legal tradition’s central idea – promotion of the common good – can inform contemporary public law thinking to promote community flourishing, both domestically and globally. Common Good Constitutionalism is a bolt from the blue that challenges conservative and progressive constitutional law paradigms alike. It is destined to infuriate, and to reorient.”
Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University
“This bold and provocative book challenges the views on constitutional interpretation of both US conservatives and liberals, and reframes the debate by focusing on a substantive concept: the common good. With his characteristic originality and ability to weave the insights of different disciplines, Vermeule puts forward a thought-provoking account of the common good and its legal implications, one which will be of relevance well beyond American debates. Even those who disagree with it will have much to learn from this erudite engagement with one of the main concepts in political thought.”
Francisco J. Urbina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
[I]t is impossible that there can be a right which does not aim at the common good. Hence Cicero is correct when he says in the De inventione that laws are always to be interpreted for the benefit of the community. For if laws are not framed for the benefit of those who are subject to the law, they are laws in name only, but in reality they cannot be laws; for laws must bind men together for their mutual benefit. Dante Alighieri, De Monarchia (Prue Shaw, trans. and ed.)
The praetor is also said to render legal right (jus) even when he makes a wrongful decree, the reference, of course, being in this case not to what the praetor has done, but to what it is right for a praetor to do. Digest of Justinian 1.1.11 (Alan Watson, trans.)
Common Good Constitutionalism
Recovering the Classical Legal Tradition
Adrian Vermeule
polity
Copyright © Adrian Vermeule 2022
The right of Adrian Vermeule to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
Excerpt from Dante Alighieri, De Monarchia (Prue Shaw, trans. and ed.; 1995), reproduced by kind permission of Cambridge University Press.
Excerpt from Digest of Justinian 1.1.11 (Alan Watson, trans.; 1985, revised edition 1998), reproduced by kind permission of University of Pennsylvania Press.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4888-0
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946341
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Acknowledgments
My debts are many and heavy. First and foremost to my family, Yun Soo, Emily, Spencer, Auntie, Oma, and Bella, who tolerate my foibles and my Amazon addiction. George Owers provided superb editorial guidance and substantive comments at all stages, especially by overcoming my obdurate resistance on the title. For excellent comments on all or part of the manuscript, I am most grateful to Rishabh Bhandari, Conor Casey, Jack Goldsmith, Pedro Jose Izquierdo, Suzanne Smith, William Strench, and three anonymous reviewers. Prof. Casey has been an intellectual companion on this journey and I’ve been fortunate to learn from him during our co-authored projects. Suzanne Smith straightened my tortured outline and Will Strench provided outstanding research assistance of all sorts, and I can’t thank them enough. Dave Owen provided valuable help with the notes.
For more general conversations, insights, and scholarship that infuse the book, or for encouragement and support of the project, thanks and appreciation go to many friends and colleagues, including all those mentioned above and also Sohrab Ahmari, Rafael de Arizaga, Evelyn Blacklock, Evelyn Boyden, Patrick McKinley Brennan, Ricardo Calleja, Yves Casertano, Amy Chandran, Patrick Deneen, Tyler Dobbs, Catherine Feil, Joel Feil, Robin Fennelly, Michael Foran, Jose Ignacio Hernandez Gonzalez, Fr. Carlos Hamel, Fr. Jeff Langan, Fr. Brendon M. Laroche, Jamie McGowan, Ryan Meade, Xavier Menard, Maria Messina, Eli Nachmany, Jake Neu, Fr. Cristian Mendoza Ovando, Christopher Owens, Gladden Pappin, Jeanette Pappin, Christopher Parrott, Darel Paul, Chad Pecknold, Amanda Piccirillo, Anthony Piccirillo, Anibal Sabater, Patrick J. Smith of Bedford, Indiana, Francisco Urbina, Pater Edmund Waldstein, Dan Whitehead, and participants at the Pro Civitate Dei Conference 2021.
At various points, I have heavily adapted excerpts from past articles or blog posts for use in the book. Besides entries on the law blogs Ius & Iustitium and Mirror of Justice, these include Common-Good