legislative supremacy

Legislative supremacy is the idea that, when exercising the power of judicial review, courts are subordinate to legislatures. There is a great deal of scholarship on the bounds of legislative supremacy, and the extent to which courts have the ability to carry out their constitutional role to interpret the laws in light of legislative supremacy.

See also: statutory interpretation and statutory construction

For more information, see this Washington University Jurisprudence Review article, this Notre Dame Law Review article, and this Harvard Law Review article

[Last updated in July of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]