FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO THE ACTIVITIES OF SUPREME COURT THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract

The article considers the basic directions of the activity of the United States’ Supreme Court. Besides the basic function - law enforcement one as the basis of judicial activity, there are three more functions - appellate, interpretive, and political, being fundamental and determining the status of the Supreme Court of the United States. As for the control function, it is implemented in the framework of the universal institute of the constitutional control. The author proposes to consider the interpretation and law making functions as the basis for the sustainability of the entire legal system. The unresolved issue of judicial law-making leads to the application of a legal fiction. In the American legal system, fictionalism does not contribute to legal stability. On the other hand, interpretation and law-making function ensure the development of American law and its adaptation to changing conditions. For example, until the last third of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court was establishing the constitutional basis for Federal government intervention in the economy and was contributing to the crucial matters of racial policy. At the present stage, there prevails the approach of "judicial restraint and the rejection of judicial activism’. According to the author, moral-political factors have a significant impact on the activities of the Supreme Court of the United States.