More than 150 years after their first publication, Story's 1833 commentaries continue to be cited by both courts and commentators. Originally published in two forms — a three-volume treatise and a one-volume abridgement — the one-volume work reprinted here contains all of Story's mature thoughts on the nature of constitutional adjudication, the role of the courts, and his theories on judicial review and contitutional interpretation.

"... it would not perhaps be amiss to suggest that the most important publishing event of the [Constitution's] bicentennial year was the reappearance in print of Justice Story's own one-volume abridgement of Commentaries."
— The American Journal of Legal History