「2004 State Constitutions and American Tort Law-Witt regularly bemoan the paucity of attention paid to their field by the profession more generally(e. g, Williams 1999; Hershkoff 1993). Indeed though the earliest state constitutions predate the widely revered federal constitution by more than twenty years, they remained largely ignored by lawyers and lay-people alike for much of the last century Yet state constitutions are critically important documents in our system of governance. The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides that federal law is supreme even a mere federal regulation trumps state law, even state constitutional law. But the U.s. Constitution. as political scientist Donald Lutz has noted, is an"incomplete text"(Lutz 1988). It enumerates certain areas of authority for the federal government, but outside those areas it takes for granted that power will be left in the hands of the states. In turn, the governments of those states are constituted y state constitutions, which(so long as they create a"republican form of government"and otherwise comply with federal law, including the federal constitution) have wide discretion to establish the systems of governance within the state as the constitution-makers see fit. State constitutions. in Lutz's formulation, complete " the text of American constitutionalism State constitutions not only complete American constitutionalism they sometimes threaten to overwhelm it. For the most remarkable distinctions between the practice of state constitutions in the United States and the practice of the federal constitution are the length and detail of many state constitutions and the regularity with which state constitutions are revised. amended. and even redrafted. State constitutions cover an enormously wide range of topics, from freedom of speech and the death penalty to"ski trails and highway routes, public holidays and motor vehicle revenues"(Tarr 1998, 2). In length, they average three-times the length of the federal constitution. The fifty state constitutions currently in force average about 120 amendments each, for a total of more than 5,900 amendments adopted out of some 9, 500 proposed amendments(Tarr 1998, 24). And yet in a sense the historical constitutions of the states dwarf even this. Americans have held over 230 constitutional conventions. They have S Const. art. 6 US. Const.art.4,§4[2004] State Constitutions and American Tort Law – Witt 5 1 U.S. Const. art. 6. 2 U.S. Const. art. 4, § 4. regularly bemoan the paucity of attention paid to their field by the profession more generally (e.g., Williams 1999; Hershkoff 1993). Indeed, though the earliest state constitutions predate the widely revered federal constitution by more than twenty years, they remained largely ignored by lawyers and lay-people alike for much of the last century. Yet state constitutions are critically important documents in our system of governance. The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides that federal law is supreme – even a mere federal regulation trumps state law, even state constitutional law.1 But the U.S. Constitution, as political scientist Donald Lutz has noted, is an “incomplete text” (Lutz 1988). It enumerates certain areas of authority for the federal government, but outside those areas it takes for granted that power will be left in the hands of the states. In turn, the governments of those states are constituted by state constitutions, which (so long as they create a “republican form of government”2 and otherwise comply with federal law, including the federal constitution) have wide discretion to establish the systems of governance within the state as the constitution-makers see fit. State constitutions, in Lutz’s formulation, “complete” the text of American constitutionalism. State constitutions not only complete American constitutionalism, they sometimes threaten to overwhelm it. For the most remarkable distinctions between the practice of state constitutions in the United States and the practice of the federal constitution are the length and detail of many state constitutions and the regularity with which state constitutions are revised, amended, and even redrafted. State constitutions cover an enormously wide range of topics, from freedom of speech and the death penalty to “ski trails and highway routes, public holidays and motor vehicle revenues” (Tarr 1998, 2). In length, they average three-times the length of the federal constitution. The fifty state constitutions currently in force average about 120 amendments each, for a total of more than 5,900 amendments adopted out of some 9,500 proposed amendments (Tarr 1998, 24). And yet in a sense the historical constitutions of the states dwarf even this. Americans have held over 230 constitutional conventions. They have