Constitutional Amendment and Political Constitutionalism: The Potential Mitigation of Critiques on Judicial Review

Abstract

The criticisms toward judicial review from Richard Bellamy and Jeremy Waldron’s political constitutionalism approach demonstrate that they do not exclude constitutional courts entirely, as they accept mechanisms of legislative responses, except constitutional amendments. This paper concludes that the high number of constitutional amendments in Brazil does not mitigate judicial review critiques. The extensive structure of the Brazilian Constitution imposes frequent changes, which do not modify its essence. Furthermore, the possibility of judicial review over constitutional amendments represents that constitutional court could overrule legislative response.