Zühtü Arslan, President of the Constitutional Court of Turkey

"In today’s increasingly globalised and fragmented world, social integration became an important political problem that must be resolved by the governments. As the European Court of Human Rights has suggested, the state authorities must act as a kind of “mediator” between conflicting groups with a view of ensuring these groups recognize and tolerate each other.

The expansion of the judiciary to cover almost all social and political issues has given rise to expectations that it must also play a crucial role in fostering social integration. Judges are expected not only to settle disputes, but also to solve social and political problems that other branches of the state are “unable or unwilling to deal with effectively”.2 Indeed, as Ran Hirschl put it, “national high courts worldwide have been frequently asked to resolve a range of issues, varying from the scope of expression and religious liberties, equality rights, privacy, and reproductive freedoms, to public policies pertaining to criminal justice, property, trade and commerce, education, immigration, labor and environmental protection”

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"The integrative function of constitutional justice should not be exaggerated. It is true that constitutional courts can and in fact do influence social integration, but they are not the prevailing actors who determine the process of social integration. As Dieter Grimm states, constitutions “produce normative effects”, and “the process of social integration does not unfold on a normative ground”.6 Grimm has emphasised that “Integration takes place in the real world. It is a social process that can be promoted by the constitution but is not controlled by it.”

Constitutional Instruments for Social Integration, Zühtü Arslan

http://www.venice.coe.int/WCCJ/Seoul/docs/WCCJ_key-note-session_3-Arslan_ENG.pdf

3rd Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice
‘Constitutional Justice and Social Integration’ Seoul, Republic of Korea, 28 September – 1 October 2014