'Visions of Judicial Review' - Benjamin Bricker examines courts and policy in democracies

Judicial review is increasingly prevalent in modern democratic government. Yet with unelected judges reviewing – and potentially overturning – the work of the people’s representatives, it also has long been, in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ words, ‘the gravest and most delicate’ task that courts undertake. In this book, Benjamin Bricker groups judicial review in modern democracy into three ‘visions’: legalist; rights-protecting; and majoritarian. He then tests the strength of these visions with an original dataset of constitutional court outcomes from four European courts – Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Latvia – to determine whether any vision meets its promise. There is surprising support for the potentially majoritarian benefits of judicial review – a finding that challenges much existing theory on the value of courts in modern democracy. 

'...provides new theoretical and empirical insight into comparative courts and judging, particularly in Central and Eastern European democracies.' Christy L Boyd, University of Georgia

Keywords: Judicialisation