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A.K. Shauku was named a Humane Studies Fellow for the academic year 2011-12. This libertarian award was granted by the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS). The IHS provides support to students and scholars with research interests in individual liberty. A.K. Shauku is a law student at the University of Alabama School of Law and a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Alabama Graduate School. |
(Economics and Institutions)
Prior to the adoption of the federal Constitution of 1787, the United States operated as a confederal political order under the Articles of Confederation. Under this scheme, each of the former thirteen colonies jealously guarded their newly asserted prerogatives as sovereign states even as they banded together in “a firm league of friendship.” Policy among the several states was the product of consensus among the state governments through their delegations in Congress. All courts in the United States were courts of the individual states, exercising jurisdiction over state law matters and, problematically, over interstate matters as well.[1] The constitution of 1787, drafted for the purpose of achieving a more complete (or “perfect”) union, subordinated the states to a set of truly national institutions. Article I of the Constitution instituted a new national congress with expanded national law making powers and a more direct electoral link to the citizenry. Article II instituted the office of the presidency, a chief executive elected on a national basis. Article III included a new federal court system with a Supreme Court at its summit and any “such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”[2] Members of the Constitutional Convention discussed the specific contours of the federal court system but little and left the details to be determined by Congress.[3] One of the first major enactments of the first sitting Congress was the Judiciary Act of 1789, which created the basic framework of the federal judiciary.
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