Druga poprawka do konstytucji USA. Próba wykładni

Abstract

If we were to list a few of the most controversial fragments of the United States Constitution, the Second Amendment would surely be one of them. In spite of the fact, that the Second Amendment is rather short, it abounds in phrases that are not necessarily understandable to modern-day readers. Terms such as militia, bear arms or security of a free state are literally easy to understand, yet all of them refer to some abstract ideas the meaning of which is not as clear today as it was two centuries ago. In order to explain the difficulties and variations in meaning of the Second Amendment, the author of this paper came to the conclusion that it was reasonable to attempt to properly interpret it’s content. After portraying the two renderings of the Second Amendment – the “individual right” model (also known as the standard model) and the “states’ right” model (otherwise known as the collective right model), the author performs a linguistic interpretation of the provision while also referring to it’s historical, systemic and functional aspects. Also, the paper summarises the views of supporters of both the individual right model and the collective right model. Finally, conclusions are drawn and the author attempts to answer the question of what constitutes the cause of the differences in interpretation discussed.