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Courts and Judges in Authoritarian Regimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Peter H. Solomon Jr
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, peter.solomon@utoronto.ca.
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Abstract

The establishment of constitutional review in transitional and nondemocratic regimes has drawn attention to courts in nondemocratic states. Typically, authoritarian leaders treat law and courts in an instrumental fashion and try to keep judges dependent and responsive to their desires. The three books under review reveal the sophisticated ways that this is achieved, including the development ofjudicial bureaucracies and the cultivation of apolitical judges, and how the empowerment ofjudges tends to produce power that is contingent and easily withdrawn. The leaders of established authoritarian regimes do empower judges, if only to gain legitimacy for the regime and keep its officials accountable, but sometimes at a cost to judicial independence. The mixture of independence, power, and accountability ofjudges in authoritarian states differs from what is found in democratic ones, and informal practices often determine the meaning of judicial power. These patterns have serious consequences for legal transition.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2007

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References

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11 There are other ways of classifying the situations of courts in authoritarian states. One could, along with Ginsburg and Moustafa, draw a two-by-two table, distinguishing between high and low levels of independence and power on each axis and placing countries in the boxes. Most of the countries that fall into the third model would land between the boxes (as their degrees of power and sometimes independence were neither high nor low). A three-by-three version, with high, medium, and low positions on each variable would still fail to capture the effects of informal practices or institutions. Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa, ”Introduction: The Functions of Courts in Authoritarian Politics,” in Ginsburg and Moustafa (fn. 9).

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27 Not surprisingly, Moustafa grounds his argument in new institutionalist theory as developed by Douglas North and Barry Weingast (see pp. 22–24). More important is his finding that Egyptian politicians seem to have embraced this logic in making policy choices. Whether the premises of in-stitutionalist literature on property rights are self-evident or conveyed to domestic authorities by representatives of international organizations or local economic advisors, this line of thought sometimes has practical impact.

28 Tom Ginsburg, ”Administrative Law and the Judicial Control of Agents in Authoritarian Regimes,” in Ginsburg and Moustafa (fn. 9).

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31 Ramseyer (fn. 12).

32 The coup d'etat launched by President Musharraf of Pakistan against his country's Supreme Court in November 2007 stands as an exception. When the Court threatened to declare Musharraf's rule illegitimate, he chose to declare a state of emergency and fire all members of the Court rather than accept its judgment. In so doing, however, the president acted like an authoritarian rather than a democratic leader.

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