Mary E Gallagher. Authoritarian Legality in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Summary: Can authoritarian regimes use democratic institutions to strengthen and solidify their rule? The Chinese government has legislated some of the most protective workplace laws in the world and opened up the judicial system to adjudicate workplace conflict, emboldening China’s workers to use these …
Shoaib A Ghias, “Miscarriage of Chief Justice: Judicial Power and the Legal Complex in Pakistan under Musharraf.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 4 (2010): 985–1022. Summary: This article explores the struggle for judicial power in Pakistan under Pervez Musharraf focusing on two questions. First, how did pro‐Musharraf regime judges expand judicial power, leading to …
Z. Fathya & R. Santika, “Judicial Independence and Political Influence in Modern Democracies.” Journal of Law and Social Politics, vol. 3, no. 2 (2025): 57–70. Summary: This research examines contemporary human rights violations and evaluates the effectiveness of international legal mechanisms in addressing these issues. Case studies on Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia, and Venezuela illustrate both the …
Zhiyu Li, “Two Kinds of Dual States: Judicial Empowerment and Disempowerment in Authoritarian Politics.” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, vol.58, no.1 (2025): 609-60. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5017955 Summary: Under the pretense of a national emergency, the Reichstag Fire Decree drastically reshaped the Weimar constitutional order in 1933. The legally undefined jurisdiction of martial law conferred …
Gretchen Helmke, “The Logic of Strategic Defection: Court–Executive Relations in Argentina Under Dictatorship and Democracy.” American Political Science Review, vol. 96, no. 2 (2002): 291–303. Summary: Building on the separation-of-powers approach in American politics, this article develops a new micro-level account of judicial decision-making in contexts where judges face institutional insecurity. Against conventional wisdom, this article …
Estuardo Sebastian Morales Forte, “An Entrepreneurial View of Judicial Capture.” Journal of Law and Courts, vol. 13, no. 1 (2025): 244–73. Summary: This is a case study of Guatemala’s judicial system, initially designed to be a pluralist model in 1984. However, it is now captured by political entrepreneurs who are undermining liberal democracy. The research warns …
Addison K. Emig and Michael J. Schumacher, “Politicizing Terror: The (Ab)Use of Counterterrorism Law for Authoritarian Ends in Tunisia.” Democratization, vol. 32, no. 2 (2024): 561–87. Summary: This article analyses Tunisian President Kais Saied’s abuse of counterterrorism law and his culpability in the country’s democratic backsliding. Following his election in 2019, Saied, with a split …
Gábor Halmai, Ágnes Kovács. “All Quiet in the Judiciary: Low Voice of Hungarian Judges and the Role of European Courts.” In Freedom of Expression of Judges: European and National Perspectives. Edited by Federica Casaroca, Mohor Fajdiga, and Madalina Moraru, pp. 79-100. London: Routledge, 2025. Summary: Hungary has received international attention in recent years for being …
Justice Alfred Mavedzenge, “The Price They Pay for Their Independence: Understanding the Persecution of Judges in Africa as Retribution for their Impartiality.” Southern African Public Law, vol. 40, no. 1 (2025): 1-28. Summary: Various recent research studies suggest that most judiciaries in Africa are captured by the ruling elites and are being weaponised to persecute political …
The U.S. Department of Justice has moved to impose monetary sanctions on Los Angeles attorney Joshua Schroeder, marking the first known case under President Trump’s March 2025 directive to punish lawyers engaged in what the administration calls “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation” against the government. Schroeder, who took the case pro bono, briefly halted the …