The assumption of intellectual-moral superiority
The assumption of intellectual-moral superiority
This chapter evidences that the Network Community assume judges (viz., themselves) to be morally superior to all other actors in a political context because of their sole reliance on intellect. The political ramifications of this assumption are analysed: the practically limitless power to expand the scope of legal texts through ‘activist’ interpretation (the ‘living constitution’); the power to superintend democracy; the power to silence all other voices asserting constitutional meaning, even the people themselves. The end goal is the power to reconstruct society in the Network Community’s own image, according to its presumptively superior norms and values. It is inferred that the hegemonic power of the intellectual-moral superiority assumption constitutes a (possibly the) major cause of judicial power over the nation-states of Europe, and the normative basis of the judicialization of politics.
Keywords: Intellectual-moral superiority, societal reconstruction, living constitution, hegemonic discourse, constitutional adjudication, superintendence of democracy, judicial activism
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