Mathilde Cohen, “Judicial Colonialism Today: The French Overseas Courts.” Journal of Law and Courts, vol. 8, no. 2 (2020): 247–76. Summary: France maintains a court system outside of the European continent in so-called overseas regions such as Martinique and New Caledonia. Held as colonies until the 1940s, these territories became part of the French state …
Omar Palermo. “Dictatorship and Judicial Complicity: The Case of Argentina.” In Transitional Justice and the Criminal Responsibility of Judges. Edited by Claudia Cárdenas Aravena, Jaime Couso Salas, Florian Jeßberger, Milan Kuhli, pp. 46-60. London: Routledge, 2025. Summary: The systematic and widespread failure to investigate crimes committed by the judiciary during Argentina’s most recent civil-military dictatorship …
Heba M. Khalil, “ ‘This Country has Laws’ ”: Legalism as a Tool of Entrenching Autocracy in Egypt.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 68, no. 12 (2024): 1597-1615. Summary: This article investigates the role of legalism and legal processes in entrenching autocratic rule in post-revolution Egypt. In the aftermath of the spectacular street protests that swept Egypt, …
Jaime Couso. “Judicial Murder in Chile: Patterns, Cases, and Doctrines for Prosecuting Jurists,” in Transitional Justice and the Criminal Responsibility of Judges. Edited by Claudia Cárdenas Aravena, Jaime Couso Salas, Florian Jeßberger, Milan Kuhli, pp. 61-73. London: Routledge, 2025. Summary: This chapter examines the feasibility of grounding attribution of criminal responsibility to judges for judicial behavior …
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 …
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 …
Wojciech Sadurski, “Judicial Review Versus Populist Authoritarianism.” Comparative Political Studies, vol. 3, no. 1 (2025): 81-105. Summary: Populist authoritarianism is a common form of democratic backsliding these days. Can courts do anything to prevent or minimize the damage produced by the growth of such political regimes? The awareness that democracy requires judges (among other institutions) …