Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

I suspect when Hungarians study American law and society, they do what most Americans do: they study the history of the national government, and when they say "The Supreme Court" they mean "The United States Supreme Court." 1, however, am not like most Americans: 1 am more interested in what happened in Hartford in 1818 than I am in what happened in Washington in 1992, and when I say "The Supreme Court" I mean "The Connecticut Supreme Court" because my primary legal focus is Connecticut rather than the United States. My point is that when Europeans speak of an American model in law or society, they should realize that the United States of America is one model, but there are fifty other models within it. I say "other" because the fifty American states are not clones of the national model. For the purposes of this conference, I would like to describe one of those other models. The Connecticut model is significant for Europeans not only because it is different from other American models, but also because it gives an idea as to how individual units of a federation work. Thus, for example, as human rights in Europe are more and more subject to supranational legal entities, the relationship of countries to these entities may resemble in some respects the relationship of American states to the federal government.

Accessibility Requirements

1

Download

Share

COinS