{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T13:28:15Z","timestamp":1786541295557,"version":"build-2736575974"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2015]]},"group-title":"SSRN","reference-count":92,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper assesses the fear that a national United States constitutional convention held pursuant to Article V of the U.S. Constitution would be a \"runaway convention\" by analyzing recent state constitutional conventions.\n\nAmericans are not in the habit of holding constitutional conventions. The most recent state constitutional convention was in 1986 \u2014 almost 30 years ago. There has never been that long a period of time between state constitutional conventions in our nation\u2019s history; the closest has been a 15-year gap around the time of the Great Depression. Perhaps in part as a result of this lack of practice, one major concern voiced in response to calls for a national constitutional convention is that it might become a \"runaway convention.\" Another cause of that concern is that the most direct precedent for a national constitutional convention \u2014 the convention of 1787 that drafted the constitution we have today \u2014 was a runaway convention, exceeding the limits on its authority that were declared when it was called. And so one of the methods of constitutional change specified in Article V, \"call[ing] a convention for proposing amendments,\" has gone unused.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.2626158","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,7,8]],"date-time":"2015-07-08T11:01:40Z","timestamp":1436353300000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Should We Fear a 'Runaway Convention'?: Lessons from State Constitutional Conventions"],"prefix":"10.2139","author":[{"given":"Charles","family":"Roslof","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"78","reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5860\/choice.33-6580","volume":"307","author":"Peter J Galie","year":"1996","journal-title":"A CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","volume":"309","author":"See Id","DOI":"10.1126\/science.309.5740.1485d"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"171","DOI":"10.1038\/scientificamerican08301913-171","volume":"171","author":"Anthony J Travia","year":"1968","journal-title":"The 1967 New York Constitutional Convention, 41 ST. 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