In Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges (AEI Press/September 8, 2003), Judge Robert H. Bork warns that one of the indispensable institutions of Western civilization-the rule of law-has become subverted by the rule of judges. In every Western nation judges are enlisting on one side of a culture war defined by allegiance to or rejection of liberal cultural ideals. This judicial imperialism is evident everywhere- from the United States to Germany to Israel and from Scandinavia to Canada to Australia-and is now the practice of international tribunals.

In the United States, as in other Western nations, judges are abusing judicial review in order to override decisions of other branches of government and to deny the fundamental freedom of self-government. Courts--comprised of unelected, unaccountable committees of lawyers--have largely abandoned traditional methods of interpreting their nations’ constitutions in favor of an activist approach that finds rights where none were contemplated by those who made those documents law. The internationalization of this judicial practice and the consequent homogenization of constitutional norms among nations is now exemplified by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices have even recently supported their rulings on foreign court decisions and legislation.

Judge Bork will present his new book at the first lecture of the 2003-2004 Bradley Lecture Series.

Register for the Bradley Lecture Series, ($35; $25 for students)

To register for this individual lecture, click below.