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The article discusses the concept of constitutional constructivism in relation to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1798 case Calder v. Bull which deals with the application of a prohibition against ex post facto laws in an American state court-based civil probate matter. The views of then-U.S. Supreme Court Justices James Iredell and Samuel Chase are examined, along with natural laws and rights and various interpretations of the nation's Constitution.

Debates about policies affecting the consumption of oil, and on how to support development of substitutes, often represent environmental politics at its most polarizing. How can we explain the serial reversals in energy policy that result from changing perceptions about the availability of renewable versus non-renewable energy supplies? Application of a range of theories to the case of the United States since 1973 suggests that two distinct types of explanation interact to play crucial roles: socially constructed deliberation takes place over the purposes of energy policy; meanwhile, physical constraints in natural resources are also observed and processed into updated perceptions of relative feasibility among policy choices. Over time, different policy priorities – varying in emphases on economic growth, sustainability, scarcity, or innovation – rise and fall as market conditions test how policies correspond with reality. Opportunities to develop successful policy strategies for managing this century's energy transition – in any of the four directions described – will depend similarly on the absence or presence of political will, a condition shaped by perceptions of material feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]