Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-mzsfj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-17T18:19:25.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Courts and Judges in Authoritarian Regimes

Review products

HilbinkLisa. Judges beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile.Cambridge and New York:Cambridge University Press, 2007, 304 pp.

MoustafaTamir. The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt. Cambridge and New York:Cambridge University Press, 2007, 328 pp.

PereiraAnthony W.. Political (In)justice: Authoritarianism and the Rule of Law in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Pittsburg, Pa.: University of Pittsburg Press, 2005, 262 pp.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

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

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cultivation of apolitical judges, and how the empowerment ofjudges tends to produce power that is contingent and easily withdrawn.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.

Information

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable