In its most sweeping form, judicial review is the power of a court of law to nullify laws passed by legislatures and administrative decisions made by government agencies. Generally, courts review and assess the laws and decisions made by other government policymakers with reference to higher principles defined in a political system's constitution. Because a constitution is considered the fundamental law of a specific polity, judicial review allows courts in that political system to determine whether laws and policies fit with constitutional principles.

Judicial review was first consistently, and perhaps effectively, put into practice in the United States. In 1803 the U.S. Supreme Court declared in the famous Marbury v. Madison case that the U.S. Constitution is a fundamental and higher law, and as such, it governs all subsequent laws and government action. As Chief Justice John Marshall (1755–1835) wrote in Marbury, "Those who have framed...