The American liberal constitutionalism in judicial review: an analysis of judicial debates over contractual freedom and private property in the Lochner Era (1897-1937)

Abstract

Abstract: This article intends to demonstrate the essence of the hermeneutic paradigm of interpretation of the constitution, in the period between the Independence of the United States (1789), motivated by the abusive laws of state intervention in the economy, and the years that preceded the beginning of the Second World War (1939). This is because the paradigm (model/standard) of interpretation and application of constitutional precepts underwent a change at the end of the 19th century, in which the defense of individual freedom was left aside by the legal community, starting to relativize these constitutional norms in favor of State intervention in the economy. These liberal precepts had been enshrined in the declarations of rights of the end of the 18th century, originating from the French Revolution and the American Revolution, but they lost strength with the advent of socialism and the theses of social constitutionalism in the 20th century.