This study investigates the phenomenon of judicial activism from a comparative perspective by
examining the highest constitutional courts in India and Germany: the Supreme Court and the
Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) respectively. In addition to answering
the question of what role these courts play in their countries' political institutional set-ups
the study explains to what extent they can be classed as powerful. Historical
neo-institutionalism forms the study's theoretical basis which it deploys in endeavouring to
understand the courts' development and in identifying critical junctures in their histories.
