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 …
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 …
Retno Dewi Pulung Sari, “Guarding the Constitution in Silence: How Judges Experience Independence Under Executive Pressure.” Hukmuna: Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 1, no. 6 (2025): 234-241 Summary: Judicial independence is a cornerstone of constitutional law, especially in transitional democracies where political pressures challenge institutional integrity. While prior research has examined legal frameworks and formal …
David Landau and Rosalind Dixon, “Abusive Judicial Review: Courts Against Democracy.” UC Davis Law Review, vol. 53, no. 3 (2020): 1313-1387. Summary: Both in the United States and around the world, courts are generally conceptualized as the last line of defense for the liberal democratic constitutional order. But this Article shows that it is not …
Rachel Ellett, Pathways to Judicial Power in Transitional States: Perspectives from African Courts (1st ed.). London: Routledge, 2013. Summary: This book examines the complex relationship that exists between the construction of judicial power, and the institutional characteristics of the courts and their regime setting. It examines the intriguing connection between the construction of judicial power …
Charles Manga Fombad, “Some Perspectives on the Prospects for Judicial Independence in Post-1990 African Constitutions.” The Denning Law Journal, vol. 16, no.1 (2012): 17-43 Summary: According to popular wisdom, judicial independence and the rule of law are essential features of modern democracy. Drawing on the growing comparative literature on courts, Helmke and Rosenbluth unpack this …
Gretchen Helmke and Frances Rosenbluth, “Regimes and the Rule of Law: Judicial Independence in Comparative Perspective.” Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 12, no. 1 (2009): 345-366. Summary: According to popular wisdom, judicial independence and the rule of law are essential features of modern democracy. Drawing on the growing comparative literature on courts, Helmke and …