How to Read the Constitution

Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution — try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores. To be sure, even the most conscientious effort to adhere to the original intent of the framers of our Constitution is flawed, as all methodologies and human institutions are; but at least originalism has the advantage of being legitimate and, I might add, impartial.

Hat Tip to Matthew J. Franck

In mediation, I consider carefully the words of your mediation brief and the meaning you wish to convey by the words you choose. Similar attention is paid to the words of any agreement or applicable statute you are construing. Our Constitution deserves no less attention than that from our courts and elected representatives.

Politics, mediation, war and peace

 War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

 Karl (Carl) von Clausewitz (1780-1831) 

The statement that ‘war is a continuation of politics by other means’ is important not because Clausewitz said it but because it reflects a fundamental reality.

Christopher Bassford, Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America, 1815-1945, Chapter 4 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

The fundamental reality of litigation, mediation, arbitration and trial is that each is a continuation of the other, and the best results in mediation are achieved by those best prepared for war.  Parties who attend mediation knowing the facts of their case, their likelihood of proving the facts that matter, their litigation budget, and their closing argument are more likely than not to settle.  Your ability to secure a durable settlement increases in direct proportion to your readiness, willingness, and ability to fight.  Mediation is not a place to find out the value of your case, it’s a place to find out if you’re going to settle the case you have.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

Karl (Carl) von Clausewitz

Frank Sinatra - The House I Live In (1945)

 

Ten minutes well spent, remembering the house we live in.

Hat Tip to Mia Farrow, October 8, 2008.