Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes

by Edited by Tom Ginsburg , Tamir Moustafa

• ISBN13: 9780521895903
• ISBN10: 0521895901
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Scholars have generally assumed that courts in authoritarian states are pawns of their regimes, upholding the interests of governing elites and frustrating the efforts of their opponents. As a result, nearly all studies in comparative judicial politics have focused on democratic and democratizing countries. This volume brings together leading scholars in comparative judicial politics to consider the causes and consequences of judicial empowerment in authoritarian states. It demonstrates the wide range of governance tasks that courts perform, as well as the way in which courts can serve as critical sites of contention both among the ruling elite and between regimes and their citizens. Drawing on empirical and theoretical insights from every major region of the world, this volume advances our understanding of judicial politics in authoritarian regimes.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. ix
Introduction: The Functions of Courts in Authoritarian Politics	p. 1
Of Judges and Generals: Security Courts under Authoritarian Regimes in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile	p. 23
Administrative Law and the Judicial Control of Agents in Authoritarian Regimes	p. 58
Singapore: The Exception That Proves Rules Matter	p. 73
Agents of Anti-Politics: Courts in Pinochet's Chile	p. 102
Law and Resistance in Authoritarian States: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt	p. 132
Courts Out of Context: Authoritarian Sources of Judicial Failure in Chile (1973-1990) and Argentina (1976-1983)	p. 156
Enforcing the Autocratic Political Order and the Role of Courts: The Case of Mexico	p. 180
The Institutional Diffusion of Courts in China: Evidence from Survey Data	p. 207
Building Judicial Independence in Semi-Democracies: Uganda and Zimbabwe	p. 235
Judicial Power in Authoritarian States: The Russian Experience	p. 261
Courts in Semi-Democratic/Authoritarian Regimes: The Judicialization of Turkish (and Iranian) Politics	p. 283
Judicial Systems and Economic Development	p. 304
Courts in Authoritarian Regimes	p. 326
References	p. 337
Index	p. 363
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