Importance Of Judicial Review

In many countries with a written, codified constitution, the doctrine of judicial review exists. Judicial review gives the superior court the power to check the actions of other branches of government as well as public authorities. Judicial review is used in many countries across Europe and the rest of the world, but is most renowned for its application in the US. I support the assumption that judicial review makes a country more democratic, however I don’t think that it is a necessity for countries to adopt such a system of review. This essay will argue that judicial review makes countries more democratic for two distinct reasons: it provides a protection of minorities against the oppression of the majorities and as well as ensuring a concrete protection of individual rights under a …show more content…
Although this may not be the case in India, where rejection of law is done on the basis of unconstitutionality, it is certainly the case in the US, where judicial philosophy takes the primary role in judicial decision making. This means that an extremely conservative appointed court will make decisions with considerable right-wing weight, and will in turn have an effect on the rest of the US society. This is dangerous, as it could led unfair and unrepresentative judgements if a court is dominated by either conservative or liberal members. Waldron’s work, as he admits, only focuses on judicial review of legislation, which I think ignores any positives that judicial review brings to a society. Strictly speaking, it would be unfair to say that the US or India or even any country with some form of judicial review is more democratic than any other country without it. It works for places with written constitutions, as some form of constitutional interpretation is needed to protect constitutional rights as well as restrict the powers of other branches of