The Grenade, the Hourglass, and the Sundial : Constitutional Time in the United States and the World

Le Centre de droit public comparé (CDPC) is organising conference on "The Grenade, the Hourglass, and the Sundial: Constitutional Time in the United States and the World" on Wednesday 8 November 2023.

Conférence by Richard ALBERT, professor at University of Texas at Austin

Abstract :

Time passes in a peculiar way under the ancient United States Constitution. Constitutional time in America follows the sundial model, rotating for years through crises and shocks both great and small, little consideration ever seriously given to breaking with time, replacing the constitution, and starting afresh with a new constitutional document. In contrast, the grenade and hourglass models prevail in much of the rest of the constitutional world: crises or shocks, both real and perceived, trigger the writing of a new constitution that emerges ultimately from the chaos of the grenade model or from the orderly self-contained procedures of the hourglass model. In this lecture, Richard Albert will introduce these three models of constitutional time in the world, and show how the American sundial model of constitutional time explains why the U.S. Constitution is so hard to amend, why Americans venerate their Constitution, and why current efforts to replace the Constitution are doomed to failure.