POLSCI 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Judicial Activism, Equal Protection Clause, Pierre Trudeau

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLSCI 1AA3
• Professor: Todd Alway

Document Summary

The answer depends, in part, on how you define democracy. Certain critics have raised concerns about the political neutrality of. The contention: judicial decisions rely on interpretation. The implication: these is space for the judiciary matter. Different groups of people see and understand it in different ways. This opens space for the judiciary to impose their own interpretation onto the text of the constitution: to interpret the constitution in a way that differs from that intended by the constitution"s framers. Question: are the social and political characteristics of judges relevant to the interpretation they provide: do their characteristics matter? (gender, ethnicity, etc) In this light, the judicial activism literature raises a number of issues: The judicial system is more accessible to the wealthy than to those. Wealthy people have a way to get around the system without financial means. The charter makes an attempt to manage the tension between the power of the court and the power of parliament.