Instituttlunsj: Judicial Review of Referendums: Legal Frameworks and Interpretive Approaches

This presentation explores how courts engage with these tensions through the judicial review of referendums, drawing on diverse approaches from jurisdictions across all continents. At the heart of the problem lies a universal challenge: the intersection of executive overreach and claims to popular sovereignty. The focus is on the role of constitutional design and judicial interpretation in either enabling or constraining executive abuse of referendums. The analysis develops a typology of judicial responses and opens avenues for further research on how law and judicial interpretation can foster democratic quality while guarding against the populist politics of immediacy.