JUDICIARY AND EXISTENTIAL THREATS: BETWEEN ACTIVISM AND SELF-RESTRAINT
JUDICIARY AND EXISTENTIAL THREATS: BETWEEN ACTIVISM AND SELF-RESTRAINT

Author(s): Patrick Lucca Da Ros
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Institut za uporedno pravo
Keywords: existential threats to humanity; need for judicial intervention; activism; self-restraint
Summary/Abstract: Humanity is facing some of its greatest contemporary threats. As concentrations of greenhouse gases rise and average temperatures reach record levels, extreme weather events are occurring with increasing frequency across the globe, bringing death, famine, and poverty. Similarly, as the widespread use of artificial intelligence becomes a reality, the replacement of human labour by machines is accelerating, often without any plan for the relocation or reskilling of affected workers, potentially causing or deepening employment crises on an unprecedented scale. In circumstances such as these, judicial intervention is likely to be demanded more frequently, especially when difficult decisions must be made and policymakers or legislators, at the national or international level, hesitate to act due to potential political costs. While judicial intervention may be desirable when other public authorities remain inert, it also carries the risk of excessive activism and a lack of due self-restraint. This paper examines judicial intervention in the face of the existential threats confronting humanity today and argues that such intervention must be exercised with critical judgment and parsimony in order to avoid misuse. Although debates on the thin line between necessary and abusive intervention are not new, it is important for them to be reconsidered and perhaps reframed precisely because the present context may require a more proactive judiciary. Given the urgency of adopting measures capable of responding to new challenges, at a pace usually far exceeding that of political and legislative processes, the balance between judicial activism and self-restraint requires renewed attention. To this end, this essay analyses the relevant literature on matters involved, mainly the concepts of activism and self-restraint, as well as the main critiques associated with both concepts, and seeks to offer, even modestly, a contribution to understanding the need, possibilities, and limits of judicial intervention when humanity faces threats of enormous magnitude to its own continuity.

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