Cover; The Silence of Constitutions; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Preface; Part I; 1 The concept and practice of constitutional abeyances; Part II; 2 Constitutional abeyances and crisis conditions: the early Stuart constitution; 3 Constitutional abeyances and crisis conditions: the imperial presidency; 4 Constitutional gaps and the arts of prerogative; Part III; 5 The theory of abeyances and modern constitutional unsettlement in Britain and the United States; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary
First published in 1989, Michael's Foley's book deals with the 'abeyances' present in both written and unwritten constitutions, arguing that these gaps in the explicitness of a constitution, and the various ways they are preserved, provide the means by which constitutional conflict is continually postponed. Abeyances are valuable, therefore, not in spite of their obscurity, but because of it. The author illustrates his point with analyses of constitutional crises from both sides of the Atlantic. He examines the period leading up to the English civil war in the seventeenth century, an
