Idea or Practice

Judicial review may be the most publicly contested aspect of American constitutionalism. When courts void legislation, they implicitly seem to strike at the heart of the principle of separation of powers. The act inherently suggests that the elected legislature is not always the legitimate representative of the people and that democratic majoritarianism is not the fundamental principle of American politics. Because judicial review can be described in opposition to ideas often deemed fundamental to American constitutionalism, the origins of judicial review have intrigued scholars of politics, history, and law. For the last century, the origins inquiry has started from the assumption that the origins of judicial review lie in an idea, an intellectual doctrine about judicial power. In fact, the origins of judicial review lie in a pre-Revolutionary practice and idea of limited legislative authority

Constitutionalism · Democracy · Discipline · Historiography · Identification (biology · Judicial activism · Judicial opinion · Judicial review · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes

• Contemporary constitutionalism and the dialectic of constituent power

  Open Access•Chris Thornhill•Global Constitutionalism•2012

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• The formation of a European constitution

  Open Access•Chris Thornhill•International Journal of Law in…•2012

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• The people themselves

  Larry Kramer, Larry D Kramer•The people themselves•2004

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