Over the last two decades courts have become very important players in the political landscape whole over the world. Globalization, the appearance of new individualism, the increasing popular demand for judicial services have transformed judges and tribunals into potentially influential actors in politics. This article assesses this apparent trend toward empowerment of judges in the world and in Europe and goes on to examine how this new trend is affecting the European model of constitutional review in particular in Bulgaria. The implication of this article is that greater emphasis needs to be given to concrete outcomes of increasing recourse to the courts as active participators in democratic government and more-- that the constitutionally provided Bulgarian model of constitutional review has to be given a new meaning in the context of “rights revolution” and “judicial activism“ and ordinary courts have to be given more power to become a functional part of this model.