Studies on Charles L. Black's Theory of Judicial Review

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23152
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0105:Law and related fields
• Research Institution: Waseda University (2020-2021); Hitotsubashi University (2019)
• Principal Investigator: KAWANABE Takeshi 早稲田大学, 政治経済学術院, 講師(任期付) (90845661)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 人民主権 / 違憲審査制 / チャールズ・ブラック / 反多数決主義の難点 / アメリカ憲法学 / 憲法思想 / 憲法理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research focuses on the constitutional theory of Charles L. Black, Jr. on judicial review. That is because an awareness of the problem of this research is that although judicial review system was counter-majoritarian, or justices or judges were not elected, it is essential to democracy or popular sovereignty because through the system, people can directly influence political process, and Black's idea puts emphasis on the point.
Engaging in this research, what was clarified is as follows. First, judicial review is one of essential methods for democracy or popular sovereignty because social movement or people's opinion has often appeared through lawsuits and the courts has often accepted it even if it could have been contradictable to decisions of political process. Second, such an idea can be not only applied to the U. S., but similar situations such as Japan, which has both democracy and judicial review.

Free Research Field

憲法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来、選挙によって選ばれてはいない、という意味では反民主的な裁判官が、なぜ民主的に制定した法律について違憲無効と判断できるのか、といういわゆる「反多数決主義の難点（counter-majoritarian difficulty）」の問題について、裁判所による違憲審査の民主的正当性を理論的に説明するのは困難だ、と言われてきたが、民主的正当性を説明できる可能性がある、ということを示すことができ、本研究には重要な意義がある。