Basic Doctrine of American Constitutional Law

Authors

Edward Corwin, Princeton University

Abstract

The two leading doctrines of American Constitutional Law before the Civil War, affecting state legislative power, were the Doctrine of Vested Rights and the Doctrine of the Police Power. The two doctrines are in a way complementary concepts, inasmuch as they represent the reaction upon each other of the earlier conflicting theories of natural rights and legislative sovereignty. But the older doctrine is the, doctrine of vested rights, which may be said to have flourished before the rise of the Jacksonian Democracy. Furthermore, if Constitutional Law be regarded from the point of view of its main purpose, namely, that of setting metes and bounds to legislative power, it is the more fundamental doctrine.

Recommended Citation

Edward Corwin, Basic Doctrine of American Constitutional Law, 12 Mich. L. Rev. 247 (1914).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol12/iss4/1