Written Constitutions and Unenumerated Rights.

This essay suggests some cultural strategies for thinking about the revolutionary, relation of written constitutions and unenumerated right. Observing that between the traditional provinces of legal and intellectual history remains a largely unexplored cultural history of rights this essay urges taking stock of the range of claims about natural rights to move beyond the question of their enumeration through public debates. Attention to the market for political writing in the period and to the empirical realities of printing can help to assess period claims for the significance of written constitutions.