我们美国的宪法原则允许司法部门拥有宣布立法违宪并认定其没有法律效力的权力。这一原则是怎样演变而来的?其真正的范围又在哪里?这是一个奇特的事实:各州宪法并未以明文规定的方式给予法官这种权力;它来源于推理。在最早的几部州宪法中,明确授予法官上述权力的文字难觅其踪。即便在联邦宪法通过后,类似的宪法行文风格亦随处可见——像1792年肯塔基州宪法第12条中规定的那样。这种权力在某些方面是否存在,于萌芽阶段即广遭否定与饱受质疑;即便到了1825年这样如此晚近的时候,当时美国最能干的法官之一、后来成了宾夕法尼亚州首席法官的吉布森先生(Mr.Justice Gibson)也在一份措辞激烈的司法 Our United States constitutional principle allows the judiciary the power to declare a law unconstitutional and to find it ineffective. How did this principle evolve and where is its real scope? It is a peculiar fact that states’ constitutions do not give judges such powers in an express manner; they derive from reasoning. In the first of a few state constitutions, it was hard to find the text that explicitly gave the judge such power. A similar constitutional style can be found everywhere, even after its adoption by the Federal Constitution - as set out in Article 12 of the Kentuckian Constitution of 1792. Whether or not such authority existed in some aspects was widely denied and questioned in its embryonic stage; even so late in 1825, when Gibson, one of the most able judges in the United States and later became the chief judge of Pennsylvania, Mr. Justice Gibson is also in a fiercely-worded jurisdiction