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What did the American Founders actually intend for the country, and
does it even matter today? If America began as an idea, then what
kind of idea? In a time of increasing turmoil over American
history, politics, and society, Crossroads for Liberty: Recovering
the Anti-Federalist Values of America's First Constitution takes a
surprising and thought-provoking look at the American Revolution,
the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, and asks what
we can learn from them. Author William Watkins casts a critical eye
on conventional wisdom about the Articles of Confederation, as he
outlines the differences between that original U.S. governing
document and the Constitution, which replaced it. He finds that the
Articles protected individual liberty and community-centered
government in ways that the looser language of the U.S.
Constitution did not. Watkins draws from contemporary examples of
bureaucratic overreach and expansion to support his
argument-examples that were startlingly predicted by proponents of
small government at the time of the Constitution's adoption. Along
the way, he points back to the Articles and the values of the
American Revolution as a framework for reimagining American
politics to foster liberty and truly representative governance.
Crossroads for Liberty arrives at an important time in American
political life, and its reexamination of the American Founding
presents a significant contribution to the story about America.
Readers will come away with a greater understanding of current
political and constitutional issues, as well as a new perspective
on American history.
Stiflers of innovation, patent trolls use overbroad patents based
on dated technology to threaten litigation and bring infringement
suits against inventors. Trolls, also known as no practicing
entities (NPEs), typically do not produce products or services but
are in the business of litigation. They lie in wait for someone to
create a process or product that has some relationship to the
patent held by the troll, and then they pounce with threats and
lawsuits. The cost to the economy is staggering. In Patent Trolls:
Predatory Litigation and the Smothering of Innovation, William J.
Watkins, Jr., calls attention to this problem and the challenges it
poses to maintaining a robust rate of technological progress. After
describing recent trends and efforts to “tame the trolls,”
Watkins focuses on ground zero in patent litigation—the Eastern
District of Texas, where a combination of factors makes this the
lawsuit venue of choice for strategically minded patent trolls. He
also examines a more fundamental problem: an outmoded patent system
that is wholly ill suited for the modern economy. Finally, he
examines proposals for reforming the U.S. patent system, which was
created to spur innovation but today is having the opposite effect.
If legal reformers heed the analyses and proposals presented in
this book, the prospects for crafting a legal environment that
promotes innovation are favourable.
Who has the final say on the meaning of the Constitution? Most
agree that this power lies with the Supreme Court. From high school
to law school, students learn that the framers of the Constitution
designed the court to be the ultimate arbiter of constitutional
issues, a function Chief Justice John Marshall recognized in
deciding Marbury v. Madison in 1803. This provocative work
challenges American dogma about the Supreme Court's role, showing
instead that the founding generation understood judicial power not
as a counterweight against popular government, but as a
consequence, and indeed a support, of popular sovereignty.
Contending that court power must be restrained so that policy
decisions are left to the people's elected representatives, this
study offers a combination of remedies--including term limits and
popular selection of the Supreme Court--to return the people to
their proper place in the constitutional order.
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