Originalism Of American Constitutional Interpretation

From American Constitution being formed, the arguments about Originalism have existed. But there are different opinions until now. The arguments between Originalism and Nonoriginalism have penetrated into theory and practice.Originalism will be discussed from five aspects in this article. The first part: conceptual analysis of Originalism. This part will make semantic analysis. "Originalism factually includes original intention's Originalism and original meaning Originalism." In the contemporary age, the principle representative of original intention's Originalism is Robert·Bork, and the principle representative of original meaning Originalism is Antonin Scalia. They both advocate to find "the original intention" and agree that "the original intention" has priority, but they have some different opinions. The second part: the rationale of Originalism. Originalism is much popular and has ascendancy in theory and practice, mainly because Originalism has deep-seated rationale. This part will mainly be discussed from four aspects: The request of democratic principle; the request of power separation; the request of written Constitution; the request of constitutional neutrality principle. The third part: criticism to Originalism. Although Originalism has its rationality, it has some problems that have not been settled. Originalism gets opponents' widespread questions and criticisms. The criticisms mainly manifest in the following aspects: methodology; the framers of the Constitution themselves not hope interpreting Constitution according to their intention; non-democratic process under democratic coat; Nonoriginalism provisions in the Constitution; Originalism is rigescent. The fourth part: Opinions to Originalism. Although Originalism is beneficial to defend constitutional government, it has its flaws. Originalism and Nonoriginalism both have some rational aspect, but neither of them can be accepted. We should advocate the dialectical interpretive method.This article attempts to use the comparative method, semantics method and historical method to introduce and analyze the basic concept, the rationale as well as its criticisms. It will seek deep-seated puzzle of Originalism. The step-up way will make us understand the framework of Originalism easier. I hope the paper will be helpful to jurisprudence research.