Law is Not Enough

Abstract

In this Carhart Memorial Lecture, Professor Neil Siegel seeks to explain why, over the past several years, many Americans of diverse ideological commitments have been emphasizing the importance of constitutional norms. It is because they understand that law is not enough to sustain the American constitutional project. Why is law not enough? Because the vitally important purposes that Americans ascribe to the U.S. Constitution require more than legal fidelity for their vindication. Constitutional norms are constitutional in the sense that they are closely tied to the purposes, or spirit, of the Constitution. They are constitutional in the sense that it would be anticonstitutional for government officials to violate them without very good, public-regarding reasons for doing so — not in the sense that it would be unconstitutional for officials to violate them.

Keywords: legal ethics, political precedent, government practices, constitutional norms