Journal Title
Journal of Law and Religion
Volume
6
Issue
2
First Page
225
Document Type
Article
Publication Information
1988
Abstract
If law is anything today, it is dispirited. It lacks life, vitality, enchantment, and vision. Neither law nor its practitioners sing—or even hum. However, there is something more, already present in America’s state constitutions if practitioners dare turn to hear it. It is the voice of the spirit of the laws of the land. It sings of a vision.
There is a strain of constitutional law, anchored by actual judicial language about the spirit of law, which participates in the discourse identified in two key law review articles—Suzanna Sherry’s “The Founders’ Unwritten Constitution,” and Thomas Grey’s “Origins of the Unwritten Constitution.” There is also nonjudicial language of the spirit within the law available from authors of several spiritual traditions. By examining this language, the spirit of the law can be found, tapped, and reinvigorated.
Recommended Citation
Emily FowlerHartigan, Law and Mystery: Calling the Letter to Life Through the Spirit of the Law of State Constitutions, 6 J. L. & Religion 225 (1988).