Do you think a politicised judiciary, is a necessary requirement for contemporary forms of democratic govt.'s?

Question

A politicised judiciary is one who engages in actively striking down unconstititional legislation; questioning acts of parliament etc etc.
Does it in any way affect democracy as we know it.. or does it enhance democracy albeit by violating some standards of it.

Ok clarification: I am implicitly referring to judicial review.. and whether that steps upon the role of the legislatures, which since they are elected, represent the attitudes and demands of the people.. so does judicial review attack the principles of a democracy, i.e the demands of the people..

Answer 1

There are two aspects of our contemporary judiciary system that transcends political issues... The first is that legislatures have a notorious habit of legislating totally unconstitutional knee jerk law in the interest of justifying their existence, of "looking busy". It is the responsibility of the judiciary, using the power of the judicial review to squelch these actions. The degree of use may be questioned which brings up point two...
There is a very poor system in place to police judicial misconduct, and the punishments when misconduct is in fact found is abysmally inadequate (and never made public). In a word, our criminal and "political" judicial system is badly broke, and needs a total overhaul.

Answer 2

That entirely depends on the structure of the democracy.

In the US it is the role of the courts to strike down any law that is unconstitutional. But that is not political. In fact the courts avoid political questions like the plague. However courts should not make laws...that is what the legislature is there for. The Judiciary is supposed to interpret, Executive is supposed to enforce and the Legislature is supposed to author the law.

Update-

Judicial review is an important piece of the lawmaking puzzle. As long as the law is constitutional and unambiguous it should be upheld and the will of the people will be enforced. The will of the people must fall within the confines they have established for governing. When the judiciary decides it is their role to craft laws because the legislature is not doing it to their liking we have a problem. As long as each branch stays within their parameters we shouldn't have any problems. Unfortunately, some judges think they are smarter than everyone else and should make the laws too.

Answer 3

NO. the fact that the times have changed doesn't mean that we should open the door for more prblems in the courts. There is enogh corruption as it is. if we politicize the judiciary then judges wont feel free to make the judgements they would because they will fear angering in voters and supporters. this is no way helping the justice system.