Abstract:

In tripartite governments, judiciary being an essential state organ plays an inevitable role in dispensation of justice and keeps a reasonable check on the other state organs in form of judicial review. This paper aimed to investigate the concept and very origin of judicial activism, its literary use, its development in the United States of America and Pakistan with special reference to Islamization of laws and judicial activism. This research mainly investigated the rationale for successful transition of judiciary in the USA and to what extent it differed from the concept prevalent in Pakistan. Considering the US model of separation of powers and checks and balances, the research at hand explicated how judiciary in the USA imposed restrictions on its authority and evolved standards and tests for the exercise of judicial review. From Pakistan’s perspective, this article examined risks attached with the excessive use of judicial activism and provided theoretical framework of the US model of judicial self-restraints, in order to strike fair balance and rational compromise among the state organs.

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