The Influence of the United States Supreme Court on Judicial Review in Europe

Abstract

This chapter outlines the influence of the United States Supreme Court, and its institution of ‘judicial review’, on certain constitutional systems of Europe. It first introduces the United States Supreme Court and the institution of ‘decentralized’ judicial review, and then discusses the fate of American judicial review in the early nineteenth century. The chapter proceeds to an examination of the influence of the American Constitution and the American Supreme Court in the early nineteenth century in Europe, before recounting how the great philosopher and political thinker, Hans Kelsen, advanced another form of judicial review—‘centralized’ judicial review. Next, an analysis of the influence of the United States Supreme Court on certain constitutional tribunals created in Europe in the post-Second World War period is made, alongside a discussion of the separate path taken by judicial review in France under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic (1958) and the influences on constitutional tribunals created in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. Finally, this chapter offers some reflections on the influence of the Supreme Court’s case law on decisions of European courts of the contemporary period.