PPAS 4130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Judicial Activism

• School: York University
• Department: Public Policy and Administration Studies
• Course: PPAS 4130
• Professor: Radha Persaud

Document Summary

What is judicial review: to determine the constitutionality of the decision/issue brought before them. Both right and left have overestimated the extent of judicial activism and how judges read their own preferences into the law, having the ability to avoid controversial issues, maximizing rights, etc. The myth that judges can avoid deciding charter issues. Conservatives primarily believe that courts should whenever possible actually avoid or limit constitutional jugement, that the courts have abandoned their traditional adjudicative function of settling disputes by trying to solve social problems. The court must decide consititutional issues however difficult or controversial they are are, avoiding the issue only delays an outcome. The myth that judges exercise open-ended discretion when making the law. Roach is concerned with the claim that judges are making law in their own image, it disregards their constraints and the claims are extreme.