Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : is America the paragon of the rule of law? -- Madison's theory of general law versus property and slaver -- The fugitive Slave Acts, judicial independence, and the jury -- Reconstruction and the black liberation rule of law -- Turning the Constitution around : black liberation and the rule of law in the last century -- Security and discretion : the problem of executive power -- The gavel and the fist : the problem of sovereignty and borders -- Conclusion : is there any hope for an American rule of law?

"What is the American rule of law? Is it a paradigm case of the strong constitutionalism concept of the rule of law or has it fallen short of its rule of law ambitions? This book traces the promise and paradox of the American rule of law in three interwoven ways. It focuses on explicating the ideals of the American rule of law by asking: how do we interpret its history and the goals of its constitutional framers to see the rule of law ambitions its foundational institutions express? It considers those constitutional institutions as inextricable from the problem of race in the United States and the tensions between the rule of law as a protector of property rights and the rule of law as a restrictor on arbitrary power and a guarantor of legal equality. In that context, it explores the distinctive role of Black liberation movements in developing the American rule of law. Finally, it considers the extent to which the American rule of law is compromised at its frontiers, and the extent that those compromises undermine legal protections Americans enjoy in the interior. It asks how America reflects the legal contradictions of capitalism and empire outside its borders, and the impact of those contradictions on its external goals"-- Provided by publisher.