The Law of American State Constitutions

The Law of American State Constitutions provides complete coverage of the legal doctrines surrounding, applying to, and arising from American state constitutions and their judicial interpretation. Using specific examples, Professor Williams provides legal analysis of the nature and function of state constitutions by contrast to the federal Constitution, including rights, separation of powers, policy-based provisions, the judicial interpretation issues that arise under state constitutions and the processes for their amendment and revision. Reference is made to history and political theory, but legal analysis is the primary focus. The Law of American State Constitutions provides an important analytical tool that explains the unique character and the range of judicial interpretation of these constitutions, together with the specialized techniques of argument and interpretation surrounding state constitutions. This is the first book to present a complete picture of the current body of state constitutional law and its judicial interpretation.

Robert Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, and Associate Director, Center for State Constitutional Studies. He holds a B.A. from Florida State, a J.D. from the University of Florida, and LL.M. degrees from New York University and Columbia. He served as a legislative assistant during the 1967 Special Constitutional Revision session of the Florida Legislature and represented clients before the 1978 Florida Constitution Revision Commission. Williams is the author of dozens of articles on state constitutional law, as well as 2 State Constitutions for the Twenty-first Century: Drafting State Constitutions, Revisions, and Amendments (2006) (with Frank P. Grad); State Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials (4th Ed. 2006); and the New Jersey State Constitution: A Reference Guide (rev. ed. 1997). He has taught state constitutional law at Rutgers since 1980. Williams has participated in a wide range of litigation on state constitutional law and has lectured to hundreds of state judges and lawyers on a variety of subjects in state constitutional law. He also co-produced a television documentary marking the fiftieth anniversary of the New Jersey Constitution and is the Convener of the Research Group on Subnational Constitutions of the International Association of Constitutional Law.