Customary Practice and the People's Voice: Separation of Powers and Foreign Affairs

CONSTITUTIONALISM, DEMOCRACY, AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS By Louis Henkin New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. Pp. viii, 125 This short book brings to bear Professor Henkin's vast experience as a teacher and scholar in United States foreign relations law on a contemporary examination of constitutional separation of powers principles in determining the appropriate roles of the three federal governmental branches in the conduct of foreign affairs. In this context, the author asks, "Is our two-hundred year old constitution satisfactory for its third century?" After an excursion through the principal issues most germane to an answer, he concludes that "there is no need for radical constitutional surgery . ..but that, where appropriate, we [should] be guided in constitutional construction by principles of constitutionalism and democracy." The remainder of the book seeks to identify these principles and to examine their past and future role in guiding the nation's conduct of foreign affairs.