The Bill of Rights and Judicial Review in the American Constitution of 1787

Abstract

"It is a thesis of this article that the Bill of Rights in the Constitution facilitated the practice of federal judicial review. There were no explicit statements about review in the Bill of Rights but it conditioned the federal judieiary to exercise it. The potential of the Bill of Rights for inereasing the role of the federal judieiary was not elear. But in the context of both the written and the unwritten dimension of the Constitution and the question whether the latter could be made positive law, the role of the Bill of Rights for judicial review of federal power became visible. The role of the Ninth Amendment was especially important here."(...)