Publication Date
2000
Publication Title
Columbia Law Review
Abstract
In Law and Disagreement, Jeremy Waldron, born and educated in New Zealand and trained in England, mounts a powerful argument in favor of legislation as a legitimate source of authority and correspondingly denigrates the American faith in judicial review. Waldron claims among other things that a legislature's inability to achieve consensus enables legislation to resolve disputes in a way that preserves the dignity and self-respect of losers in the policy struggle. In this Book Review Essay, Judge Posner commends Waldron for his impressive criticisms of the theoretical basis for the American faith in judicial review. At the same time, he criticizes Waldron's view of legislation as starryeyed and insufficiently attuned to the realities of the American judicial system. Although Waldron shows that the philosophical arguments supporting judicial review are weak, he does not show that judicial review itself is, on balance, a practice we would do best without.
Recommended Citation
Richard A. Posner, "Book Review (reviewing Jeremy Waldron, Law and Disagreement (1999))," 100 Columbia Law Review 582 (2000).
