Since the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan’s female judges and prosecutors have lived under constant threat. Once respected leaders, they are now forced into hiding, facing intimidation, violence, and social erasure. Many cannot seek medical care or work openly, and their pleas for asylum have gone unanswered. Despite petitions and UK relocation schemes, progress has …
Yan-Hao Lai, “Securitisation or Autocratisation? Hong Kong’s Rule of Law under the Shadow of China’s Authoritarian Governance.” Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 58, no. 1 (2022): 8-25. Summary: This article examines the nature of the legal system in Hong Kong and its process of autocratisation under the Chinese sovereign. This article suggests that, …
Maria Joshua, “Justifications of Repression in Autocracies: An Empirical Analysis of Morocco and Tunisia, 2000–2010.” Contemporary Politics, vol. 30, no.1 (2023): 108–36 Summary: How do autocrats communicate about repression? Previous studies have analysed how autocratic officials justify the repression of large-scale protests to avoid backlash effects. However, we know much less about how everyday repression …
Zeren Li, Zeyuan Wang, “Judicial Recentralization as Political Control: Evidence from the Judicial Leader Rotation in China.” Social Science Quarterly, vol. 104, no.4 (2023): 669–683. Summary: This study analyzes how authoritarian leaders use the judicial system to solve the principal–agent problem in the government hierarchy. The authors argue that autocrats recentralize court personnel to enhance …
Leonardo Puleo, Ramona Coman, “Explaining Judges’ Opposition When Judicial Independence Is Undermined: Insights from Poland, Romania, and Hungary.” Democratization, vol. 31, no. 1 (2023): 47–69. Summary: Over the past decade, governing parties in Central and Eastern Europe have dismantled liberal democracy, violating the rule of law and limiting the power of judges. This article examines …
Mert Arslanalp, T. Deniz Erkmen, “Mobile Emergency Rule in Turkey: Legal Repression of Protests during Authoritarian Transformation.” Democratization, vol. 27, no. 6 (2020): 947–69. Summary: One of the challenges of autocratizing governments in regimes with nominally democratic institutions is how to repress fundamental democratic rights while claiming to uphold the rule of law. Post-9/11 socio-legal …
Björn Dressel, Tomoo Inoue, Cristina Regina Bonoan, “Justices and Political Loyalties: An Empirical Investigation of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1987–2020.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 49, no. 2 (2024): 955–79. Summary: The Philippine Supreme Court is considered one of Asia’s most activist courts. During the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte (2016–22), however, concerns grew …
Dave Bridge, Curt Nichols, “Congressional Attacks on the Supreme Court: A Mechanism to Maintain, Build, and Consolidate.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 41, no. 1 (2016): 100–125. Summary: Reexamination and reinterpretation of the “mature” (1955–1984) New Deal era of congressional attacks on the Supreme Court reveals a new hypothesis: that Court‐curbing efforts played a previously unrecognized …
Ling Li, “The ‘Production’ of Corruption in China’s Courts: Judicial Politics and Decision Making in a One-Party State.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 37, no. 4 (2012): 848–77. Summary: Despite its rampant presence, judicial corruption in China has often been regarded as the idiosyncratically deviant behavior of a few black sheep eluding prescribed judicial conduct. This …
Jothie Rajah. “Punishing Bodies, Securing the Nation: How Rule of Law Can Legitimate the Urbane Authoritarian State.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 36, no. 4 (2011): 945–70. Summary: Although authoritarian rule of law may seem an oxymoron, strategic reconfigurations of the “rule of law” can produce acceptance of law that observes procedure while erasing rights. …