The Judiciarys Law Journal

The Judiciarys Law Journal

The Judge as the Guardian of the Rule of Law: An Essay on the Rights-Oriented Approach to Judicial Activism

Document Type : Research/Original/Regular Article

Authors
PhD in Criminal Law and Criminology, School of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Two categories of the judicial role in political society can be separated: the activist judge and the self-restrained judge. The activist judge utilizes the judicial office to realize social ideals such as protecting people's rights and social justice. On the other hand, the self-restrained judge tries as much as possible to apply the law with a textual approach and avoids activism. The article provides a theoretical framework for understanding judicial activism. Judicial activism has significant risks and may harm legal values such as the rule of law, separation of powers, and democracy. Despite all this, the article argues that we can talk about legitimate judicial activism under certain conditions. So we must think about the activism's direction and political context. The article shows that it is justified for judges to resist the "lawmaker's war against the rule of law" and actively protect people's rights against the encroachments of the ruling system..
Keywords
Subjects

منابع:
-          اشمیت، کارل (1390)؛ الهیات سیاسی، ترجمه لیلا چمن‌خواه، نشر نگاه معاصر.
-          آگامبن، جورجو (1395)؛ وضعیت استثنایی، ترجمه پویا ایمانی، نشر نی.
-          بیتهام، دیوید و کوین بویل (1389)، دموکراسی چیست؟ چاپ ششم، ترجمه شهرام نقش تبریزی، انتشارات ققنوس.
-          پورمحمدی، رضا و محمد مهدی یوسفی (1401)، تأثیر جنسیت بر تفسیر حقوقی، مجله حقوقی دادگستری، دوره 86، شماره 119.
-          راسخ، محمد (1392)؛ ویژگی‌های ذاتی و عرضی قانون، در: حق و مصلحت: مقالاتی در فلسفه حقوق، فلسفه حق و فلسفه ارزش، نشر نی.
-          رالز، جان (1385)؛ عدالت به مثابه انصاف، ترجمه عرفان ثابتی، چاپ دوم، انتشارات ققنوس.
-          سمائی، مهدی، محمدجعفر حبیب‌زاده و رحیم نوبهار؛ قاضی فضیلت‌مند؛ سهم فضیلت‌گرایی در نظریۀ قضاوت، مجله حقوقی دادگستری، دوره 86، شماره 118، تیر 1401- 49-74.
-          عزیزی، علی (1400)؛ دادگاه‌های حل مسئله در حقوق کیفری ایران، نشر میزان.
-          عظیمی، محمدرضا (1398)؛ اسطوره حق ها و استراتژی اصلاح: چشم انداز کنشگری حقوقی در ایران، انتشارات شیرازه.
-          قاضی، ابوالفضل (1387)؛ بایسته‌های حقوق اساسی، چاپ 32، نشر میزان.
 
-          Achen, Christopher H and Larry M. Bartels (2016); Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government, Princeton University Press.
-          Ackerman, Bruce (2004); The Emergency Constitution, he Yale Law Journal, Vol. 113, No. 5.
-          Alexander, Lawrence A. (2015); Judicial Activism: Clearing the Air and the Head, in Judicial Activism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the American and European Experiences, Springer.
-          Alexy, Robert (2002); Argumant from Injustice: A Reply to Legal Positivism, translated by Bonnir Paulson and Stanley Paulson, Clarendon Press.
-          Barak, Aharon (2006); The Judges in Democracy, Princeton University Press.
-          Brand-Ballard, Jeffrey (2010); Limits of Legality: The Ethics of Lawless Judging, Oxford University Press.
 
-          Carrese, Paul O (2003); The Cloaking of Power : Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism, The University of Chicago Press.
-          Costa, M. Victoria (2004); Neo-republicanism, freedom as non-domination, and citizen virtue. Politics, Philosophy & Economics Volume 8, Issue 4.
-          Coutinho, Luís Pereira, La Torre and Steven D. Smith (2015); Judicial Activism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the American and European Experiences, Springer.
-          Ditto, Peter H. (2012); Preference, Principle, and Political Casuistry, in Jon Hanson (ed.) Ideology, Psychology, and Law, Oxford University Press.
-          Dworkin, Ronald (1986); Law’s Empire, Belknap Press.
-          Dyzenhaus, David (1998);  Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves: Truth, Reconciliation and the Apartheid Legal Order, Hart Publishing.
-          Dyzenhaus, David (1999); Hrad Cases in Wicked Legal Systems: South African Law in the Perspective of Legal Philosophy, Clarendon Press.
-          Dyzenhaus, David (2006); The Constitution of Law: Legality in a Time of Emergency, Cambridge University Press.
-          Edlin, Douglas E. (2010); Judges and Unjust Laws: Common Law Constitutionalism and the Foundations of Judicial Review, The University of Michigan Press.
-          Flores, Imer B. and Kenneth Einar Himma (2013); Law, Liberty, and the Rule of Law, Springer.
-          Fuller, Lon (1969); The Morality of Law, Yale University.
-          Ginsburg, Tom and Tamir Moustafa (2008); Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, Cambridge University Press.
-          Graver, Hans Petter (2015); Judges Against Justice: On Judges When the Rule of Law is Under Attack, Springer.
-          Green, Craig (2009); An Intellectual History of Judicial Activism, mory Law Journal, Vol. 58, No. 5.
-          Hansford, Justin (2014); Cause Judging, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Vol. 27, No. 1.
-          Holland, Kenneth M. (1991); Judicial Activism in Comparative Perspective, St. Martin's Press.
-          Huemer, Michael (2021); Justice before the Law, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
-          Kmiec, Keenan D (2004).; The Origin and Current Meanings of "Judicial Activism, California Law Review, Vol. 92, No. 5 Oct.
-          Kramer, Matthew (2007); Objectivity and the Rule of Law, Cambridge University Press.
-          La Torre, Massimo (2007); Constitutionalism and Legal Reasoning, Springer.
-          La Torre, Massimo (2015); Between Nightmare and Noble Dream: Judicial Activism and Legal Theory, in Judicial Activism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the American and European Experiences, Springer.
-          Leiter, Brian (2013); The Boundaries of the Moral (and Legal) Community (September 23, 2012). Alabama Law Review, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1930628 .
-          Leiter, Brian (2017); "The Roles of Judges in Democracies: A Realistic View," University of Chicago Public Law & Legal Theory Paper Series, No. 622.
-          Loader, Ian and Neil Walker (2007); Civilizing Security, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
-          Marmor, Andrei, The Ideal of the Rule of Law. BLACKWELL COMPANION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND LEGAL THEORY, Blackwell Publishing, Forthcoming, USC Law Legal Studies Paper No. 08-6, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1106243 
-          McIntyre, Joe (2019); Judicial Function: Fundamental Principles of Contemporary Judging, Springer.
-          Moustafa, Tamir (2014); Law and Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 10:281–99.
-          Murphy, Collen (2005); Lon Fuller and the Moral Value of the Rule of Law, Law and Philosophy.
-          Paine, Thomas (2005); Common Sense, ICON Classics.
-          Perelman, Chaim (1980); Justice, law, and argument: Essays on Moral and Legal Reasoning, D. Reidel Publishing Company.
-          Raz, Joseph (2019); The Law’s Own Virtue, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 39, Issue 1.
-          Ribeiro, Gonçalo de Almeida (2015); Judicial Activism and Fidelity to Law, in Judicial Activism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the American and European Experiences, Springer.
-          Rivers, Julian (1999); The Interpretation and Invalidity of Unjust Laws, David Dyzenhaus (ed.), Recrafting the Rule of Law: The Limits of Legal Order, Hart Publishing.
-          Roux, Theunis Robert (2021), Judicial Activism, Elgar Encyclopedia on Comparative Law , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3923921 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3923921.
-          Sarat, Austin and Stuart Scheingold (2006); What Cause Lawyers Do For, and To , Social Movements: An Introduction, Cause lawyers and social movements / edited by Austin Sarat and Stuart A. Scheingold, Stanford University Press.
-          Schauer, Frederick (2020), Lon Fuller and the Rule of Law (May 20, 2020). Michael Sevel (ed.), Routledge Handbook of the Rule of Law (London: Routledge), Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2020-46, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3606157
-          Sellers, Mortimer (2010); An Introduction to the Rule of Law in Comparative Perspective, in The Rule of Law in Comparative Perspective, Springer.
-          Sourdin, Tania and Archie Zariski (2018); What Is Responsive Judging?, in The Responsive Judge: International Perspectives, edited by Tania Sourdin and Archie Zariski, Springer.
-          Sowell, Thomas (1989); Judicial Activism Reconsidered.
-          Tamanaha, Brian Z. (2007), A Concise Guide to the Rule of Law. FLORENCE WORKSHOP ON THE RULE OF LAW, Neil Walker, Gianluigi Palombella, eds., Hart Publishing Company.
-          Tasioulas, John (2018), The Rule of Law , Forthcoming in John Tasioulas (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Law (Cambridge University Press, 2019),
-          Waldron, Jeremy (2016); The Rule of Law; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rule-of-law/#ProcAspe .
-          Waldron, Jeremy (2019), Rule by Law: A Much Maligned Preposition, NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 19-19, p 1. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3378167 .
-          Wallace, Jay; Practical Reason, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/practical-reason/
-          Zedner, Lucia (2009); Security, Routledge.
-          Zolo, Danilo (2007); The Rule of Law: A Critical Reappraisal, in: The Rule of Law: History, Theory and Criticism, Edited by Pietro Costa and Danilo Zolo, Springer.
Volume 87, Issue 122
Spring 2023
Pages 159-187

  • Receive Date 13 May 2023
  • Revise Date 17 August 2023
  • Accept Date 07 August 2023
  • First Publish Date 07 August 2023
  • Publish Date 22 June 2023