Friday, May 29, 2015

Berger Reviews Ablavsky, "Beyond the Indian Commerce Clause"

Over at JOTWELL, Bethany Berger (University of Connecticut School of Law) has posted an appreciative review of "Beyond the Indian Commerce Clause," by former LHB guest blogger Gregory Ablavsky (University of Pennsylvania, headed soon to Stanford Law School). The article appeared in Volume 124 of the Yale Law Journal (2015).

In Berger's words, it is a "groundbreaking" contribution to the debate about the place of tribal nations in the United States' legal and constitutional structure. Here's a brief excerpt:
Following an emerging approach to constitutional history, Ablavsky looks beyond the words of the [Indian Commerce] Clause and its limited history to a greater range of constitutional actors and a longer temporal context. Canvassing statements and correspondence by the Washington administration, state officials, and others, Ablavsky argues that the founders located the Indian affairs power in the general constitutional status of the United States, and particularly the interplay of the nation’s military, territorial, commercial, and diplomatic affairs powers.
Read on here.