Seriatim

Book excerpt: Seldom has American law seen a more towering figure than "the great Chief Justice," John Marshall. Yet even while acknowledging the indelible stamp Marshall put on the Supreme Court, it is possible - in fact necessary - to examine the pre-Marshall Court, and its justices, to gain a true understanding of the origins of American constitutionalism. The ten essays in this tightly edited volume were especially commissioned for the book, each by the leading authority on their particular subject. The result is a window onto the origins of the most powerful court in the world, and onto American constitutionalism itself.