What is Judicial Activism?

A Conversation with Professor Jane Schacter

In this episode, I spoke with Jane Schacter, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. Professor Schacter holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Professor Schacter is a leading expert on areas including statutory interpretation and constitutional law. I spoke with Professor Schacter about the concept of judicial activism, and how this relates to other issues in legal theory. We discussed problems with defining judicial activism, the history of rhetoric surrounding judicial activism, and John Hart Ely’s process theory.