For some time, the academic debate about U.S. constitutionalism has looked for justifications for our practices, believing this would confer legitimacy on them. In my work, I have endeavored to derive legitimacy from the practices themselves, reserving the task of justification for other

DEFINE: Distinguishes a practices-derived view of legitimacy from a justification-based one, introducing a conceptual framework for constitutionalism.

Philip Chase Bobbitt, Philip Chase Bobbitt - Refl…, loc. 15