Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

5-7-2019

SSRN Discipline

PSN Subject Matter eJournals; Legal Anthropology eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals; Legal Scholarship Network; Political Theory eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Law & Society eJournals; Law & Society: Public Law eJournals; AARN Subject Matter eJournals; Political Institutions eJournals; Political Science Network; Anthropology & Archaeology Research Network

Abstract

This contribution to the Culverhouse School of Laws Capstone Lawyer magazine is a short introduction to a larger ongoing project on oaths and the Constitution That project seeks to examine the relationship between oaths and constitutional interpretation and to argue for the revival of honor suitably revised as an essential virtue in citizenship and officeholding brbrThe focus here is on the intimate connection between the concepts and institutions that I call the troika office honor and the oath Office is best thought of not simply in terms of power and with the officer viewed merely as any individual who happens to exercise a powerwielding office at a given moment Instead the key feature of office is duty and the officer is defined as much by the limits on his or her power as by its exercise brbrHonor is the institution that connects the officer to his or her office Properly understood it has both internal and external aspects and involves more than the love of fame Honor is the desire to be thought well of by those whose opinion ought to count and the desire to deserve to be thought well of by that honor group This quality of character as Sharon Krause puts it this ambitious desire to live up to ones code and to be publicly recognized for doing so is essential if officeholders are to fulfill the duties of their office with virtue and excellence And it provides the officeholder with a valuable sense of energy and agency The character of the men and women who occupy offices thus remains an essential element of our political and constitutional order brbrIn our constitutional system the device that ties individual honor to the ostensibly impersonal office is the oath The oath is a linchpin that connects the individual to the office and the officeholder to the commitment to act honorably It is imperfect and in contemporary society both honor and oath require substantial rethinking and revivification to function properly But the oath is not unimportant and is no mere empty ritual Taken together this troika of institutionsoffice honor and oathencourage the sound and faithful performance of ones duties in a democratic constitutional republic Thinking about the troika shifts our focus from power to duty and from substance and doctrine to character and virtue It helps us to see that a government of laws and not of men is and must be powerfully and ineluctably personal brbrComments on the larger project are emphatically welcome I note that the subject of the oath and of the importance of duty and character in officeholding has given rise to a growing literature that is well worth exploring

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