University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Judges as Targets of Democratic Decline

Castagnola (2017). Manipulating courts in new democracies: forcing judges off the bench in Argentina.

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Castagnola, A. (2017). Manipulating courts in new democracies: forcing judges off the bench in Argentina. Routledge. When can the Executive manipulate the composition of a Court? What political factors explain judicial instability on the bench? Using original field data from Argentina’s National Supreme Court and all twenty-four Provincial Supreme Courts, Andrea Castagnola develops a novel theory …

Bakiner (2016). “Judges Discover Politics: Sources of Judges’ Off-Bench Mobilization in Turkey”. 

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Bakiner, O. (2016). Judges Discover Politics: Sources of Judges’ Off-Bench Mobilization in Turkey. Journal of Law and Courts, 4(1), 131-157. When do judges initiate public action outside the courtroom? What kinds of political activities do they engage in? What are the consequences of their interactions with social and political actors? This article investigates judges’ efforts to influence …

Kosař & Šipulová (2017), “The Strasbourg Court Meets Abusive Constitutionalism: Baka v. Hungary and the Rule of Law”

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Kosař, David & Šipulová, Katarína. The Strasbourg Court Meets Abusive Constitutionalism: Baka v. Hungary and the Rule of Law. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 10, 83–110 (2018). Published online November 2, 2017. DOI: 10.1007/s40803-017-0065-y. This article examines how the European Court of Human Rights responded to a textbook case of abusive constitutionalism: the …

Gárdos-Orosz & Szente (2021), Populist Challenges to Constitutional Interpretation in Europe and Beyond

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Gárdos-Orosz, Fruzsina & Szente, Zoltán (eds.). Populist Challenges to Constitutional Interpretation in Europe and Beyond. Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2021. DOI: 10.4324/9781003148944. Available at: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/49404 This edited volume examines how populist governments and movements influence the theory and practice of constitutional interpretation. The book asks whether populist regimes generate new interpretive doctrines or simply instrumentalize …

Kapiszewski (2011), “Tactical Balancing: High Court Decision Making on Politically Crucial Cases”

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Kapiszewski, Diana. Tactical Balancing: High Court Decision Making on Politically Crucial Cases (2011). Law & Society Review, 45(2), 471–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00437.x High court decision making in politically sensitive cases cannot be fully understood through ideological or strategic models alone. Kapiszewski advances the thesis of tactical balancing, arguing that justices weigh a specific set of considerations—including their …

Garcia Holgado & Sánchez Urribarri (2023), “Court-packing and democratic decay: A necessary relationship?”

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Garcia Holgado, Benjamin & Sánchez Urribarri, Raúl. Court-packing and democratic decay: A necessary relationship? Global Constitutionalism 12(2): 350–377 (2023). This article challenges the common assumption that court-packing and democratic erosion are inherently linked. Drawing on rich case studies of Argentina under Carlos Menem (1989–1999) and Venezuela under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro (1999–present), the authors …

Gamboa et al. (2024), “Courts against backsliding: Lessons from Latin America”

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Gamboa, Laura; García-Holgado, Benjamín; & González-Ocantos, Ezequiel. Courts against backsliding: Lessons from Latin America. Law & Policy 46(4): 358–379 (2024). Across Latin America’s recent wave of democratic erosion, courts have often been portrayed as victims of executive encroachment or as instruments weaponized by autocrats. This article develops a different analytical frame by highlighting cases in …

Aguiar Aguilar (2023), “Courts and the Judicial Erosion of Democracy in Latin America”

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Aguiar Aguilar, A. A. (2023). Courts and the judicial erosion of democracy in Latin America. Politics & Policy, 51(1), 7-25. How are courts used to erode democracy? Using the literature on democratic backsliding and judicial politics as a theoretical framework, in this work, Aguiar Aguilar shows the path of how courts are captured by incumbents and then …

Retired Boston Judges Praise Mark Wolf’s Extraordinary Resignation in Protest of Trump

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In an unprecedented move, longtime federal judge Mark Wolf resigned from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts after more than 40 years of service, publicly condemning President Donald Trump as an “existential threat to democracy.” In an essay in The Atlantic, Wolf said he could no longer remain silent under judicial ethics …

Satterthwaite, Sydow & Polk (2023). “Unchecking Power and Capturing Courts: How Autocratization Erodes Independent Judicial Systems”.

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Satterthwaite, M. L., Sydow, K., & Polk, B. (2023). Unchecking Power and Capturing Courts: How Autocratization Erodes Independent Judicial Systems. Rutgers UL Rev., 76, 1147. The paper argues that courts have increasingly taken on legislative functions by issuing structural reform injunctions—broad, ongoing orders designed to overhaul public institutions such as prisons, schools, and mental hospitals. …