David Landau and Rosalind Dixon, “Abusive Judicial Review: Courts Against Democracy.” UC Davis Law Review, vol. 53, no. 3 (2020): 1313-1387. Summary: Both in the United States and around the world, courts are generally conceptualized as the last line of defense for the liberal democratic constitutional order. But this Article shows that it is not …
Howard Liu., Su, Ching-Hsuan Su., & Yi-Ting Wang, “The Law or the Career? Autocratic Judiciaries, Strategic Sentencing, and Political Repression.” Comparative Political Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140241290212, (2024) Summary: Why do judges sometimes act against autocrats’ will, even without judicial independence and tenure security? Contrary to the theory of strategic defection under weak governments, this behavior can also …
Hans Petter Graver, “Judicial Independence Under Authoritarian Rule: An Institutional Approach to the Legal Tradition of the West.” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, vol. 10, no. 2 (2018): 317-339. Summary: The autonomy of legal institutions is put on the most severe test when they are under attack by other organs of the state. …
Rachel Ellett, Pathways to Judicial Power in Transitional States: Perspectives from African Courts (1st ed.). London: Routledge, 2013. Summary: This book examines the complex relationship that exists between the construction of judicial power, and the institutional characteristics of the courts and their regime setting. It examines the intriguing connection between the construction of judicial power …
Charles Fombad. “The Judiciaries of Africa at a Crossroads: Can they Counter the Wave of Authoritarian Resurgence?”, In Judicial Independence in Transitional Democracies. Edited by Nauman Reayat, Rhona K. M. Smith, Moohyung Cho, pp. 12-37. London: Routledge, 2024. Summary:Much progress was made during the post-1990 constitutional reforms in Africa to make courts more independent and …
Mark Fathi Massoud, “The Rule of Law in Fragile States: Dictatorship, Collapse, and the Politics of Religion in Post-Colonial Somalia.” Journal of Law and Society, vol. 47, no. 1 (2020): 111-125. Summary: The fate of the rule of law in fragile states rests in religious politics. Three defining periods of Somali politics illustrate this argument. …
Charles Manga Fombad, “Some Perspectives on the Prospects for Judicial Independence in Post-1990 African Constitutions.” The Denning Law Journal, vol. 16, no.1 (2012): 17-43 Summary: According to popular wisdom, judicial independence and the rule of law are essential features of modern democracy. Drawing on the growing comparative literature on courts, Helmke and Rosenbluth unpack this …
Gretchen Helmke and Frances Rosenbluth, “Regimes and the Rule of Law: Judicial Independence in Comparative Perspective.” Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 12, no. 1 (2009): 345-366. Summary: According to popular wisdom, judicial independence and the rule of law are essential features of modern democracy. Drawing on the growing comparative literature on courts, Helmke and …
David Enweremadu, “The Judiciary and the Survival of Democracy in Nigeria: Analysis of the 2003 and 2007 Elections.” Journal of African Elections, vol. 10, no. 1 (2011): 114-142. Summary: For many Nigerians, and indeed in the eyes of most foreign observers of Nigerian affairs, the restoration of democratic rule in Africa’s largest country in May …
Fiona Shen-Bayh, “Strategies of Repression: Judicial and Extrajudicial Methods of Autocratic Survival.” World Politics, vol. 70, no. 3 (2018): 321–57. Summary: Strategies of repression vary widely between extrajudicial and judicial extremes, from unrestrained acts of violence to highly routinized legal procedures. While the former have received a great deal of scholarly attention, judicial methods remain relatively …