Judges Commons^™

Judicial Conservatism V. A Principled Judicial Activism: Foreword To The "Symposium On Law And Philosophy", Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the wake of the Reagan administration's numerous judicial appointments, it is the rare observer of the American legal scene who has not thought seriously about the proper role of the judge in enforcing the law. Editorialists, columnists, and academicians are all debating in one form or another the classic jurisprudential question: "What is law?" While such questions have never completely dropped from sight, we are now in a period of constructive intellectual turmoil much like those surrounding the Nuremburg trials and the civil rights movement. Such periods are usually characterized by, and perhaps caused by, a perception among an …