Academic

The Judge in a Democracy
Aharon Barak

To read the entire book description or a sample chapter, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8145.html

Whether examining election outcomes, the legal status of terrorism suspects, or if (or how) people can be sentenced to death, a judge in a modern democracy assumes a role that raises some of the most contentious political issues of our day. But do judges even have a role beyond deciding the disputes before them under law? What are the criteria for judging the justices who write opinions for the United States Supreme Court or constitutional courts in other democracies? These are the questions that one of the world's foremost judges and legal theorists, Aharon Barak, poses in this book.

"Aharon Barak [states] that it is precisely because judges are not politicians that they are the right people to undertake the constitutional role of ensuring that the legislature and the executive comply with legal requirements. . . . Barak points out that tension between the courts and other branches of government is natural and it is desirable. If the courts' decisions were always welcomed by the executive, judges would not be doing their job properly. Barak's thesis is . . . of fundamental importance."--David Pannick, Times of London

Paper | $22.95 / £13.50 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13615-8
Cloth  | $29.95 / £17.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12017-1