Abstract ...................................................................................................................

1
Introduction ....................................................................................................... 3 -
Chapter 1: On Constitutions and Constitutionalism ............................................... 5
I .1 The formation of the Federal Constitution: A brief history ........................ 5
1.2 Constitutionalism and the Federal Constitution .......................................... 6
1.3 The definition of a constitution ................................................................. 10
1.4 The doctrine of constitutionalism: a brief history ..................................... 12
1.5 The Devices............................................................................................... 15
1.5. I The rule of law 15
1.5.2 The separation of powers 18
1.6 The constitutional forms that favour constitutionalism ............................ 19
1.7 Supremacy of the const~tutlon
. . ............................................................. 22
1.7.1 Inconsistency with the constitution 22
1.7.1.1 "Ordinary law" 25
1.7.2 Judicial review 26
1.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................26

Chapter 2: An Analysis of the Greco-Roman Influence on the Concept of Natural

Rights ................................................................................................................ 28
2.1 A brief introduction to ancient Greece...................................................... 28
PIato .......................................................................................................... 30
2.2.1 Plato, the idea of "good", and community-linked rights 30
2.2.1.1 Plato's Ideas/ Forms 3 1
Aristotle ....................................................................................................33
2.3.1 Aristotle, the state and rights 33
2.3.2 Aristotle, the "good", and community-associated rights 34
Some effects wrought by the Hellenistic-Roman empire ......................... 36
The rise of individualism and the concurrent idea of universal law .........36
2.5.1 Epicureanism 37
2.5.2 Stoicism 37
The rise of universal natural law ...............................................................40
Other schools of philosophy ...................................................................42
. .
The rise of Christ~anlty........................................................................... 44
Conclusion ......................................................................................... 45

Chapter 3: Natural Rights from the Middle Ages unto the Renaissance: a Brief
History ................................................................................................................... 47
3.1 The Middle Ages ....................................................................................... 47
3.2 Reason and the Christian scholastics of the Middle Ages ........................ 49
3.2.1 Anselm 50
3.2.2 Aquinas 51
3.3 Natural law .............................................................................................. 52
3.3.1 Different views on natural law 53
3.4 Ockham: A theory of natural and individual rights .................................. 56
3.5 Customary rights in the medieval era ....................................................... 60
3.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 63

Chapter 4: The Enlightenment and Natural Rights ............................................... 65

4.1 Some effects of the Reformation ......................................................... 65
4.2 Effects stemming from the rise of science: rationalism and empiricism ..68
4.2.1 The rationalists and reason 70
4.2.2 The empiricists and reason 7 1
4.3 Reason. universal natural law, and natural rights ..................................... 72
4.3.1 Locke and inalienable rights 72
4.3.2 Hobbes and Locke 76
4.4 The manifestation of rights in the Unites States and England .................. 79
4.4.1 Revolution in England and the enshrining of customary rights
79
4.4.2 The failure to provide equal rights: the English situation 80
4.5 Natural rights and the American Revolution ........................................... 82
4.5.1 The failure to provide equal rights: the American situation 83
4.6 Individualism, Hobbes and Locke.......................................................... 85
4.6.1 The roots of individualism 86
4.6.1.1 Dualism: the subject-object and fact-value distinctions
86
4.6.1.1.1 The roots of such dualism 88
4.6.2 Causality 90
4.6.3 Modernity 90
4.6.4 The solvability of problems 91
4.7 Conclusion .........................................................................................9 1

Chapter 5: Conclusion........................................................................................... 93

Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 97