ABSTRACT
The judicial role which influences judicial decision-making deals with how much the judiciary agrees or disagrees with the political branches on constitutional issues. The Supreme Court shifted its activities from its grand bench to its three petty benches. Although it must forward a case to the grand bench for any change in judicial precedent, a five-member petty bench may dismiss a challenge lodged against the constitutionality of an alleged act so long as the grand bench has upheld the constitutionality of it. In the light of the heavily loaded petty benches and the inactivity of the Supreme Court grand bench, the chapter examines the judicial roles of the three petty benches, as reported in the abridged collection of the Supreme Court decisions. Since Sonobe's two different professional backgrounds to analyze his attitudes on civil liberties and judicial role, analyze characteristics of his decision-making and what he and his academic colleagues on the bench about judicial attitude and judicial role.
