ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the most manifestation of the debate, which took place in a June 2003 decision involving the constitutionality of a Texas statute criminalizing sodomy. A splendid, indeed seminal, article by Sujit Choudhry, aptly entitled Globalization in Search of Justification, notes the copious use of foreign materials by the South African Constitutional Court. The point is that it seems impossible to deny that what has gone on in Holland should be of interest to any judge called upon to determine whether the vague contours of the Constitution, which is committed to some notion of autonomy, embrace something like assisted suicide. Thus in a spring 2004 speech to the American Society on International Law, Justice Scalia clearly distinguished between looking to foreign sources for help in what might be termed “first-order” interpretation of the Constitution and more limited consultation for certain empirical purposes.
