Noah Feldman, Columnist

British Courts Flex Their All-American Muscles

This week’s Brexit ruling hinges on judicial review, which is a thing in the U.S. but not really in the U.K.

September 16, 2019 at 8:00 AM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

On constitutional tenterhooks
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe

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Tuesday, Britain’s Supreme Court will start a pivotal hearing related to Brexit. What it decides could tell us just how aggressive judicial review has gotten, and how far it’s spread from its foundations in the U.S..

Over the last 50 years, the American practice of judicial review has made its way around the world. It has become increasingly common for judges in constitutional systems to see themselves as the final decision-makers on constitutional legitimacy.