The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution ( New Histories of American Law )

Publication series :New Histories of American Law

Author: Jack P. Greene  

Publisher: Cambridge University Press‎

Publication year: 2010

E-ISBN: 9780511904431

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780521760935

Subject: K7 Americas History

Keyword: 美洲史

Language: ENG

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The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution

Description

Using the British Empire as a case study, this succinct study argues that the establishment of overseas settlements in America created a problem of constitutional organization. The failure to resolve the resulting tensions led to the thirteen continental colonies seceding from the empire in 1776. Challenging those historians who have assumed that the British had the law on their side during the debates that led to the American Revolution, this volume argues that the empire had long exhibited a high degree of constitutional multiplicity, with each colony having its own discrete constitution. Contending that these constitutions cannot be conflated with the metropolitan British constitution, it argues that British refusal to accept the legitimacy of colonial understandings of the sanctity of the many colonial constitutions and the imperial constitution was the critical element leading to the American Revolution.

Chapter

Prologue: inheritance

1 Empire negotiated, 1689–1763

Crown and Colonies

Parliament and the Colonies

2 Empire confronted, 1764–1766

3 Empire reconsidered, 1767–1773

A New Challenge from Parliament

Crown Prerogative and Colonial Rights

Conditions of Law in the Colonies

4 Empire shattered, 1774–1776

Epilogue: legacy

Index

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