the best measure of a generations life span. ) If any law "be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right. 3 Jeffersons argument, in some form, goes back at least to Hume's essay Of the Original Contract. It was a repeated refrain of Thomas Paines. Many others besides Jefferson made similar arguments at the time of the drafting and ratification of the Constitution; Noah Webster ridiculed Jefferson for not holding the principle more consistently Jeffersons principle remains, today, the central challenge to written constitutionalism-indeed perhaps to more than that, since much ordinary legislation is the product of earlier generations too. Jeffersons argument is the starting point for many discussions about the nature of constitutionalism. 4 But to this day it is not clear how to answer Jeffersons argument. This principle that the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead is of very extensive application and consequences in every country Jefferson said. In our own legal culture, the questions are, among other things, why the generations who drafted the Constitution of 1787 or the Bill of Rights, or the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution have a right to rule us today. Specifically, why do we care about their intentions which are generally thought to have some importance to current constitutional controversies? And, more pressing why do we even care about the documents they adopted, which everyone today would acknowledge to be in some sense authoritative? 2See Letter of July 12, 1816, to Samuel Kercheval, reprinted in xxx; see also Letter of Sept6,1789 3Letter of Sept 6, 1789 Eg most of the essays in Larry Alexander, ed, Constitutionalism2 the best measure of a generation’s life span.2) If any law “be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.”3 Jefferson’s argument, in some form, goes back at least to Hume’s essay Of the Original Contract. It was a repeated refrain of Thomas Paine’s. Many others besides Jefferson made similar arguments at the time of the drafting and ratification of the Constitution; Noah Webster ridiculed Jefferson for not holding the principle more consistently. Jefferson’s principle remains, today, the central challenge to written constitutionalism—indeed perhaps to more than that, since much ordinary legislation is the product of earlier generations too. Jefferson’s argument is the starting point for many discussions about the nature of constitutionalism.4 But to this day it is not clear how to answer Jefferson’s argument. “This principle that the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead is of very extensive application and consequences in every country,” Jefferson said. In our own legal culture, the questions are, among other things, why the generations who drafted the Constitution of 1787, or the Bill of Rights, or the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution have a right to rule us today. Specifically, why do we care about their intentions, which are generally thought to have some importance to current constitutional controversies? And, more pressing, why do we even care about the documents they adopted, which everyone today would acknowledge to be in some sense authoritative? 2See Letter of July 12, 1816, to Samuel Kercheval, reprinted in xxx; see also Letter of Sept. 6, 1789. 3Letter of Sept. 6, 1789. 4Eg most of the essays in Larry Alexander, ed., Constitutionalism