Imperial from the Beginning

The Constitution of the Original Executive

Saikrishna Prakash

Eminent scholar Saikrishna Prakash offers the first truly comprehensive study of the original American presidency. Drawing from a vast range of sources both well known and obscure, this volume reconstructs the powers and duties of the nation's chief executive at the Constitution's founding. Among other subjects, Prakash examines the term and structure of the office of the president, his power as constitutional executor of the law, his foreign policy authority, his role as commander in chief, the president's authority during emergencies, and his relations with the U.S. Congress, the courts, and the states. This ambitious and even-handed analysis counters numerous misconceptions about the presidency and fairly demonstrates that the office has long been regarded as monarchical.

About the Author

Saikrishna Prakash is the David Lurton Masse, Jr., Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, VA.

Reviews

"A Herculean effort to gather together all the extant materials dealing with the formulation of Article II of the Constitution... The amount of scholarship that went into this book is staggering. Its fairness and accuracy leap out of every page" – Richard Epstein, NYU Law School

"By far and away the best and most comprehensive account available of the Framers' original understanding of the powers and duties of the presidency" – Steven Calabresi, Northwestern Law School

"A clearly organized, well-argued book featuring informative legal scholarship" – Edward Larson, Pepperdine University Law School

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