{"id":194574,"date":"2022-07-07T17:05:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=194574"},"modified":"2022-07-07T17:05:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:35:33","slug":"across-democracies-supreme-courts-legitimacy-autonomy-are-under-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/across-democracies-supreme-courts-legitimacy-autonomy-are-under-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Across democracies, supreme courts\u2019 legitimacy, autonomy are under question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cAcross democracies, supreme courts\u2019 legitimacy, autonomy are under question\u201d <\/strong>published in\u00a0\u201cIndian Express\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a07th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 2 \u2013 Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: To understand the declining legitimacy of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: Recently, the US Senator declared that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has \u201cburned whatever legitimacy they still have”.\u00a0 The New York Times has referred to \u201cthe Supreme Court\u2019s declining institutional credibility [that] has wounded the nation\u2019s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the law\u201d<\/p>\n

But the question of the \u201cdeclining legitimacy of a Supreme Court\u201d is a concern of all democrats, even in India.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges faced by Supreme Courts worldwide?<\/h5>\n

The centrality of all these issues is the court\u2019s autonomy<\/strong>. For example,<\/p>\n

-In Poland, the present government tries to undermine the supreme court\u2019s independence. This resulted in the European Union warning the Polish government that its membership of the EU was at risk.<\/p>\n

-In the US, the recent array of decisions has severely eroded the court\u2019s legitimacy. These include, a)<\/strong> Overturning the 50-year-old judgment of Roe versus Wade on the right to abortions, b) <\/strong>The affirmation of gun rights deriving from the Second Amendment, c) <\/strong>limiting the power of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce greenhouse gases across states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Supreme Court recognises sex work as a \u2018profession<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
How can the Supreme Court address the question of legitimacy?<\/h5>\n

On this question of \u201clegitimacy\u201d, there are three important aspects. These include 1)<\/strong> The court\u2019s role in enforcing the core principle of \u201climited government\u201d, 2)<\/strong> The court’s recognition, and endorsement of the fundamental distinction between \u201crule of law\u201d and \u201crule by law\u201d, and 3)<\/strong> The court’s role as the promoter of \u201cconstitutional morality\u201d.<\/p>\n

Enforcing limited government<\/strong>: The executive controls the machinery of government and often tends to misuse it, particularly in situations when they dominate the other institutions of the state. The court must clip the executive\u2019s wings. The court’s must speak on behalf of the rights of the ordinary citizen.<\/p>\n

The court’s sometimes misread their role as implementers of government policy, but they are not.<\/p>\n

The distinction between \u201crule of law\u201d and \u201crule by law\u201d<\/strong>: According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, \u201cThe rule of law is supposed to lift law above politics. The idea is that the law should stand above every powerful person and agency in the land. Rule by law, in contrast, connotes the instrumental use of the law as a tool of political power. It means that the state uses law to control its citizens but tries never to allow law to be used to control the state\u201d.<\/p>\n

Authoritarian regimes hide behind rule by law. Those regimes also seek to control the appointment of judges. By controlling the judiciary, regimes are able to shift the dispute from the domain of politics to the chambers of the courts. This must end.<\/p>\n

Court as a custodian of constitutional morality<\/strong>: Whenever democracy spreads and colonises aspects of social and political life, the court must immediately enter the playing field and regulate this spread. The court must remind politics of what is permitted and what is proscribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: The Supreme Court\u2019s Judgment on GST \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Supreme courts need to be vigilant about the threats to their \u201clegitimacy<\/strong>\u201d. They need to stand some distance above political dynamics so that they can reflect on their privileged position and their sacred responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cAcross democracies, supreme courts\u2019 legitimacy, autonomy are under question\u201d published in\u00a0\u201cIndian Express\u201d\u00a0on\u00a07th\u00a0July 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary. Relevance: To understand the declining legitimacy of the Supreme Court. News: Recently, the US Senator declared that the Supreme Court of… Continue reading Across democracies, supreme courts\u2019 legitimacy, autonomy are under question<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-194574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701951453},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}