Judicial Activism and the Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India has emerged as the most powerful organ of State and amongst the foremost constitutional courts in the world through the instrument of Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the exercise of writ jurisdiction and the expansive interpretation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Judicial activism impinging on every facet of governance has become the norm in recent times. This paper traces the evolution of judicial activism since Independence through pronouncements of the Supreme Court. It brings out distinct phases in this evolution – the initial phase of judicial restraint, the first phase of an activist judiciary where the Supreme Court primarily was concerned with protection of fundamental rights and humane treatment of citizens; the second phase where the Supreme Court took keen interest in preservation and protection of the environment; the third phase where the Supreme Court extended its reach into the socio-economic arena and the fourth phase when issues of transparency and probity in governance led to interventions by the Supreme Court. The paper illustrates through judgements of the Supreme Court that the instrument of the PIL and the exercise of writ jurisdiction by the Supreme Court go beyond the traditional postulates of judicial processes and political theory on separation of powers between the organs of State.
An Intellectual History of Judicial Activism
Over the past six decades, the term "judicial activism" has become an immensely popular tool for criticizing judges' behavior. Despite the term's prominence, however, its meaning is obscure, and its origins have been forgotten. This article seeks to correct such deficiencies through a detailed conceptual and historical analysis of judicial activism. First, the article analyzes legal rhetoric, describing the post-war origins of the phrase "judicial activism," its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century prehistory, and its rise to prominence in the late twentieth-century. Second, the article rejects as incoherent modern definitions of judicial activism, and instead describes a functional "concept" of activism based on unenforced norms of judicial propriety. Because judges make many decisions without supervision by other public officials, debates over judicial role are crucial to our legal system's operation. These debates - regardless of whether they use the word "activism" - illustrate why the concept of judicial activism remains inescapably important. Third, the article offers a two-part, common-law method of determining whether particular decisions or judges are activist. This method contrasts with other ways of evaluating activism such as textualism, originalism, and jurisprudential theory. If widely adopted, the proposed approach to judicial activism might yield clearer perceptions of judicial behavior and might reduce destructive schisms between expert and non-expert discussions of judicial role.
Preparation and performance evaluation of swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binder
Abstract In order to study the effect of the preparation process of swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binder on the rheological properties of the binder, the matrix asphalt and asphalt rubber were used as the control group, and swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binders were obtained by three preparation processes. Then the rheological properties of five binders were evaluated by rotational viscosity, DSR, MSCR and BBR tests. The results show that the addition of swine manure bio-oil to asphalt rubber is beneficial to the workability, but cause negative effect on its high temperature performance, fatigue performance and low temperature crack resistance. The preparation method of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder can reduce the degradation of high-temperature performance of asphalt rubber caused by addition of swine manure bio-oil to a certain extent. The fatigue properties of the three bio-binders are close, and the critical temperature is less than 25 °C. The process of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder will increase the creep stiffness and reduce the low-temperature performance. However, the low-temperature performance of the binder obtained by this process is still better than that of the matrix asphalt and can meet the requirements of use. Therefore, it is recommended to use the preparation process of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder to prepare swine manure bio-oil modified asphalt rubber.