Judicial Review of Public Actions, (Set of 2 Vols.)

This is a book on Judicial Review, contextually considered. The Context is a written constitution. Under an unwritten constitution, as in England, judicial review, till recently was considered to be the essential core of administrative law, and the purpose of judicial review was to enforce the legal limits of public - and in particular executive-power. According to Dicey, who remains the prophet of this mode of thinking, the parliament has under the English constitution the right to make or unmake any law, and further, that no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having the right to override or set aside the legislation of the Parliament.

Under the written constitution, such as in the United States of America, India and Pakistan, the position is wholly different.

A written constitution creats limited power in its institutions. Ever since Marbury v. Madison, it has been the firmly entrenched law that the courts in general and the Supreme Court in the last resort have the power of judicial review, that is, the power to decide for the government as a whole what the constitution means and to declare acts of other departments of government (including those of the legislature) invalid if they exceed the powers provided for them by the constitution, properly understood

This is, what according to the Greek Philosophers - including Plato and Aristotle- the conception of justice is. They thought-originally on grounds derived from religion- that each thing or person has its or his proper sphere, to overstep which is unjust

Judicial review is `judicial power` in action; it is the practical aspect of the rule of law.

To facilitate a better understanding of the power of judicial review, the book contains, besides a fairly exhaustive study of the constitutional concept of `judicial power`, a treatment of the constitutional concept of the `legislative power` and the executive power` of the State. And, as the judicial power is the power to decide and that includes the important power to interpret, it has also been thought necessary to include a discussion on interpretation and the doctrine of precedent. Included in the Part on interpretation is a chapter on tensions naturally arising out of the exercise of the power of judicial review.

And last but not the least is the part containing a thought provoking discussion of the doctrine of state or civil necessity.