Foreign Authority, American Exceptionalism, and the \u3ci\u3eDred Scott\u3c/i\u3e Case

At least since Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1831, the idea that America is distinctive from other nations has permeated much political and social commentary. The United States has been variously perceived as unique in its history, its culture, its national values, its social movements, and its social and political institutions. While the term technically refers only to distinctiveness or difference, exceptionalism may have positive or negative aspects – what Harold Koh has called America\u27s Jekyll-and-Hyde exceptionalism. In the legal realm, claims of exceptionalism have been offered to support what Michael Ingnatieff identifies as legal isolationism – or refusal by domestic courts to consider foreign practices and international legal rules in the construction of U.S. law