Yasser Kureshi, “When Judges Defy Dictators: An Audience-Based Framework to Explain the Emergence of Judicial Assertiveness against Authoritarian Regimes.” Comparative Politics, vol. 53, no. 2 (2021): 233–55, 1–2.
Summary: The article explores the conditions under which judiciaries act assertively against authoritarian regimes. Kurashi argues that the judiciary coalesces around institutional norms and preferences in response to the preferences of institutions and networks, or “audiences,” with which judges interact, and which shape the careers and reputations of judges. He puts forward a typology of judicial-regime relations. Based on a case study of Pakistan, he argues that the judiciary’s affinity to authoritarian regimes diminishes as these audiences grow independent from the regime.