Rule of Law and Judicial Review, Judicial Review in India and the USA- a comparative study

Nowhere does the Indian Constitution use the words ‘judicial review’. Yet it is the single power that lets a court strike down an Act of Parliament itself — the most dramatic thing one organ of government can do to another. This topic asks where that power comes from, and why India and the USA, despite arriving at similar power, got there by different routes.

In two minutes

Judicial review is the power of courts to test a law or executive act against the Constitution and strike it down if inconsistent, and it exists in both India and the USA to uphold the rule of law — but where the American Supreme Court created the power for itself through interpretation, the Indian Constitution supports it through express provisions.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – I: Political Theory and Political Organisation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.