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Authors: Robert H. Bork

Coercing Virtue (22 page)

Universalistic rhetoric, which is what rights talk is, teaches disrespect for the actual institutions of any nation,
perhaps particularly democratic nations. The institutions of such nations are designed to allow compromise, to slow change, to dilute and tame absolutisms. Such institutions embody inconsistencies that are, on balance, wholesome. They are designed, in short, to do things, albeit messily and democratically, that abstract generalizations about the just society bring into contempt. Abstract ideals can never be realized in practice, but the search for cosmic justice continues and drives courts on, carrying them away from the only task they are even tolerably fit to perform.

It may be that whenever the care of a constitution is given to judges, the outcomes described in this book are inevitable. Wherever there is judicial review, two forces are placed in opposition: the democratic principle of the elected branches of government and the anti-democratic principle of the judiciary. It seems not to have occurred to the designers of such arrangements that one or the other of these principles might in time gain ascendancy. But that is precisely what happened in the twentieth century, and the ascendent and aggressive principle is the anti-democratic one. The crucial question for all nations that desire to remain self-governing is how to tame and limit the anti-democratic aggressions of their judiciaries.

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I
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C
HAPTER
1
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C
HAPTER
2
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C
HAPTER
3
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C
HAPTER
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C
ONCLUSION

Himmelfarb, Gertrude.
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C
OPYRIGHT
© 2002 R
OBERT
H. B
ORK

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. First published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, in 2002. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Bork, Robert H.
      Coercing virtue : the worldwide rule of judges

(The Barbara Frum lectureship)
eISBN: 978-0-307-36853-9

1. Political questions and judicial power.  2. Judicial process.  I. Title.  II. Series: The Barbara Frum lecture series.

K3367.B67 2002         347′.012         C00-932466-6

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