University of Wisconsin–Madison

Month: July 2025

Kurban (2024), “Authoritarian Resitance and Judicial Complicity: Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights.”

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Dilek Kurban, “Authoritarian Resistance and Judicial Complicity: Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights.” European Journal of International Law, Vol. 35, No. 2 (2024): 355–387 Summary: International courts face growing contestations to their authority. Scholars have conceptualized the forms and grounds of such resistance as well as the response of international courts. Yet, in focusing …

Requa (2012), “A Human Rights Triumph? Dictatorship-era Crimes and the Chilean Supreme Court.”

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Marny A. Requa, “A Human Rights Triumph? Dictatorship-era Crimes and the Chilean Supreme Court.” Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2012): 79–106 Summary: This article assesses the dramatic shift in Chilean Supreme Court jurisprudence toward accountability for crimes committed during the dictatorship and sets it within the context of judicial reform and political …

Cheruvu, Khehbiel (2025), “Do Citizens in Backsliding Democracies Support International Courts’ Judicial Power? Evidence from Hungary.”

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Sivaram Cheruvu and Jay N. Krehbiel, “Do Citizens in Backsliding Democracies Support International Courts’ Judicial Power? Evidence from Hungary.” Journal of Law and Courts, vol. 13, no. 1 (2025): 148–65. Summary: International courts are increasingly serving as bulwarks of democracy. These courts, however, often depend on the cooperation of the very governments they seek to …

Gandur, Chewning, Driscoll (2025), “Awareness of Executive Interference and the Demand for Judicial Independence: Evidence from Four Constitutional Courts.”

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Martín Gandur, Taylor Kinsley Chewning, and Amanda Driscoll, “Awareness of Executive Interference and the Demand for Judicial Independence: Evidence from Four Constitutional Courts.” Journal of Law and Courts, vol. 13, no. 1 (2025): 122–47.  Summary: Awareness of courts has long been theorized to engender enhanced support for judicial independence, but this is a logic that …

Davis (2025), “The ‘Case’ for Independent Courts: The Insurance Theory of Judicialization in Autocracies.”

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Taraleigh Davis, “The ‘Case’ for Independent Courts: The Insurance Theory of Judicialization in Autocracies.” Journal of Law and Courts, vol. 13, no. 1 (2025): 35–50.  Summary: Why would authoritarian rulers allow for an independent judiciary that could constrain their power? This study extends the insurance theory of judicial independence to autocratic contexts, arguing that when …

Aguilar, Cornejo, Monsiváis-Carrillo (2025), “Is Mexico at the Gates of Authoritarianism?”

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Azul A. Aguiar Aguilar, Rodrigo Castro Cornejo, Alejandro Monsiváis-Carrillo, “Is Mexico at the Gates of Authoritarianism?” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 36, no.1 (2025): 50-64. Summary: Mexico might be on the verge of becoming one of the latest additions to the list of competitive authoritarian regimes. By the end of the term of President Andrés Manuel …

McCarthy (2025), “Oversight of the Legal System in an Authoritarian Regime: Police and Court Monitoring in Russia.”

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Lauren A. McCarthy, “Oversight of the Legal System in an Authoritarian Regime: Police and Court Monitoring in Russia.” Journal of Law and Courts, vol. 13, no. 1 (2025): 195-219.  Summary: How can citizens in authoritarian regimes exercise oversight of the legal system? McCarthy examines police and court monitoring, bottom-up oversight activities popular in pre-war Russia …

Dichio (2024), “Stewards, defenders, progenitors, and collaborators: Courts in the age of democratic decline.”

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Michael A. Dichio, “Stewards, defenders, progenitors, and collaborators: Courts in the age of democratic decline.” Law and Policy, vol. 47, no. 1 (2025): e12251. Summary: In this introductory essay to the special issue of Law & Policy, “Global Perspectives on Judicial Politics and Democratic Backsliding,” Dichio critically examines the paradoxical role of courts during episodes …

Esen (2024), “Judicial transformation in a competitive authoritarian regime: Evidence from the Turkish case.”

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Berk Esen,  “Judicial transformation in a competitive authoritarian regime: Evidence from the Turkish case.” Law and Policy, vol. 47, no.1 (2025): e12250. Summary: What accounts for the variation in the judiciary’s ability to serve as a democratic guardrail under populist rule? This article contends that populist governments use judicial activism against their political agenda to …

Chia (2025), “Authoritarian Constitutionalism, Judicial Capture or the Ambivalence of Modern Law?”

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Eduardo A. Chia, “Authoritarian Constitutionalism, Judicial Capture or the Ambivalence of Modern Law?” Oñati Socio-Legal Series, vol. 15, no. 2 (2025): 427–458.  Summary: The work builds primarily on literature analysis to critically engage with two interrelated issues: (i) the notion of “authoritarian constitutionalism” and (ii) the ambivalences observed in judicature’s conceptual articulation and institutional structuration. …