Common Good Constitutionalism - Adrian Vermeule

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      “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

      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.)

      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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      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4888-0

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946341

      The publisher has used its best endeavors to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

      Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

      For further information on Polity, visit our website:

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      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.

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