Essays on the History and Interpretation of Interposition, Nullification, and Secession

Just out from the University of Akron Press’s is Union and States' Rights: A History and Interpretation of Interposition, Nullification, and Secession 150 Years After Sumter, edited by Neil H. Cogan.  It is the third book in the Press’s “&Law” series.  The Press explains:

The edited work is a collection of papers that tackles the issue of the power states have to object to and cancel Federal law. For eighty-one years, from the ratification of the Constitution to the end of the Civil War, state power was the central issue of governance. Currently, the issue is gaining more traction due in part of the Tea Party movement to limit Federal intervention in areas like education, health care, voting legislation, etc.

Contents after the jump.
Introduction (Neil H. Cogan)

Part I: James Madison’s Views

“A Real Nondescript:” James Madison’s Thoughts on States’ Rights and Federalism (Jack N. Rakove)

James Madison and the Constitution’s “Convention for Proposing Amendments” (Robert G. Natelson)

Part II: Antebellum Arguments

States’ Rights, Southern Hypocrisy, and the Crisis of the Union (Paul Finkelman)

Still Too Close to Call: Rethinking Stampp’s “The Concept of a Perpetual Union” (Daniel W. Hamilton)

Secession and Breach of Compact: The Law of Nature Meets the U.S. Constitution (Stephen C. Neff)

William Rawle and Secession: Legal Rights and Political Wrongs (H. Jefferson Powell)

Part III: Impact of the 14th Amendment

The 14th Amendment and the Unconstitutionality of Secession (Daniel A. Farber)

Part IV: Contemporary Views of Interposition, Nullification, and Secession

Interposition: An Overlooked Tool of American Constitutionalism (Christian G. Fritz)

Originalism’s Limits: Interposition, Nullification, and Secession (Lee J. Strang)

 Part V: Critical Views of Federalism, States’ Rights, and Memories of Secession

Union and States’ Rights 150 Years After Sumter: Some Reflection on a Tangled Political and Constitutional Conundrum (Sanford V. Levinson)

Remembering Our Second Revolution: Sesquicentennial Reflections on Civil War Historiography (Norman W. Spaulding)