Book Review: The Powers of U.S. Congress: Where Constitutional Authority Begins and Ends

Abstract

his book offers an overview and analysis of the twenty-one powers of the US Congress as enumerated in the Constitution. It is organized by the powers of Congress in the order that they appear in Article I Section 8, Article II Section 2, and the enforcement provisions in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Editor Brien Hallett (University of Hawaii, Manoa) introduces the book with historical background on how the American colonies developed the concepts and structures that led to the Constitution. Most important are social contract theory and the influence of the European commercial revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that had an impact on the original design of colonial government in America.