Democracy in Britain: The Lords’ Work
Part 2: How the “hereditary peers” enhance lawmaking and support the soft power of the UK.
The main argument against the “hereditary” peers in Britain’s House of Lords is not, oddly enough, that they are harmful to lawmaking. One would think that fundamental reforms to the composition of a legislative chamber would somehow involve its work, but few in Westminster complain about the substantive contributions of the Lords.
One of the oft-repeated criticisms is that the chamber is too large. We ominously and repeatedly hear that only the Chinese National People’s Congress has more members—but is anyone suggesting a causal link between legislative size and communism? The New Hampshire House of Representatives has four hundred members, far and away the largest state legislative chamber in America, yet the “Live Free or Die” state is one of the more libertarian in the Union.
To the contrary, a relatively large number of members is appropriate for a scrutinizing body. With more members and expertise, the better attention it can pay to legislation originating from the other chamber. Furthermore, Lord Philip Norton notes that “size is not the most pressing problem in terms of public trust. My experience is that few people outside Westminster know how many members there are of the House.”
Constitutionalism
Epstein & Yoo: Amicus Brief in Supreme Court of Maryland
Civitas Senior Research Fellows Richard Epstein and John Yoo, alongside the Mountain States Legal Foundation, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of Maryland.
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Religious Exemptions?: What the Free Exercise Clause Means
A conversation among three religious liberty scholars on the Free Exercise Clause’s original meaning.
The American Revolutions of 1776
America's founding was animated by both the spirit of liberty and the spirit of religion — a philosophical and practical achievement worth understanding and attempting to recover today.
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Why Issues of Birthright Citizenship Are So Difficult
What makes this issue so difficult is that all these positions have evidence to support them.
Making Sense of the Court's Establishment Clause Doctrine
Chapman and McConnell acknowledge the judicial excesses of older caselaw and orient the doctrine toward a collection of historically sensitive second-best arrangements looking forward.
