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 …
Urribarri, R. A. S. (2011). Courts between democracy and hybrid authoritarianism: evidence from the Venezuelan Supreme Court. Law & Social Inquiry, 36(4), 854-884. This article offers a theoretical discussion about courts in “hybrid regimes” that evolve from formerly democratic countries. The evolution toward authoritarianism typically allows governments more latitude to reduce judicial independence and judicial power. Yet, …
Kureshi, Y. (2021). When Judges Defy Dictators. Comparative Politics, 53(2), 233-2. Under what conditions do judiciaries act assertively against authoritarian regimes? The author argues that the judiciary coalesces around institutional norms and preferences in response to the preferences of institutions and networks, or “audiences,” with which judges interact, and which shape the careers and reputations of judges. …
Kapiszewski, D. (2011). Tactical balancing: High court decision making on politically crucial cases. Law & Society Review, 45(2), 471-506. This article advances a new account of judicial behavior: the thesis of tactical balancing. Building on existing models of judicial decision making, the thesis posits that high court justices balance a discrete set of considerations—justices’ ideologies, their institutional …
Trochev, A., & Ellett, R. (2014). Judges and their allies: rethinking judicial autonomy through the prism of off-bench resistance. Journal of Law and Courts, 2(1), 67-91. The social construction of judicial power is a complicated process, especially in hybrid political regimes. The authors argue that off-bench resistance against blatant interference supported by vibrant social networks is an …
Hilbink argues that positive judicial independence—which she defines as judges’ willingness to assert legal authority against powerful actors—cannot be explained solely by political fragmentation or formal institutional arrangements. Drawing on comparative evidence and detailed case studies of Spain and Chile, she shows that judges often behave contrary to what strategic models predict: some assert themselves …
This article examines the role of the Supreme Court in the development of the Mexican political system. The judiciary provided an important source of regime legitimation, as it allowed for the consolidation of a state of legality and a claim to constitutional rule of law, at least in discourse. However, the judiciary was in effect …
Gerzso, T. (2023). Judicial resistance during electoral disputes: Evidence from Kenya. Electoral Studies, 85, 102653. Over the last decade, African courts have played an important role in the conduct of free and fair elections. In Kenya, the Supreme Court nullified the presidential election of the incumbent. These rulings challenge the conventional wisdom that courts in hybrid regimes …
Kureshi, Yasser. To Reinforce or Replace: Courts and Democratic Backsliding (2025). Government & Opposition. doi:10.1017/gov.2025.10015. Courts are often seen as defenders of democracy, but this article shows that empowered judiciaries can also enable democratic backsliding. Kureshi develops a framework distinguishing courts that reinforce political representation from those that replace elected institutions when fighting corruption. Through …
Pavone, Tommaso. The Ghostwriters: Lawyers and the Politics behind the Judicial Construction of Europe. Cambridge Studies in Law and Society. Cambridge University Press, November 2022. Paperback. ISBN: 9781009074988. The Ghostwriters challenges the traditional, judge-centered narrative that portrays the European Union as a polity built primarily by judicial activism. Pavone uncovers the political work of practicing …