Valuing Autonomy
16 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2007 Last revised: 7 Feb 2011
Abstract
This essay, written for the Symposium, Mimalism Versus Perfectionism in Constitutional Theory, focues on the place of autonomy in constitutional law, the core idea in James Fleming's brand of constitutional perfectionism. More specifically, this essay asks two questions. First, if Fleming is right that autonomy is a value that must be protected to "secure constitutional democracy," how should we make sense of our criminal justice system as a constitutional matter? Second, in understanding the scope of deliberative autonomy in constitutional law, does it make sense to see the Constitution, as Fleming does, as protecting "preconditions for persons' development and exercise of deliberative autonomy"? Or, should we think of the Constitution as going beyond protecting preconditions for exercise of autonomy and, in fact, making substantive judgments about what types of exercises of autonomy are worth protecting?
Keywords: autonomy, constitution, cannibalism, sexual autonomy, Armin Meiwes, right to die
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