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The Juridification of Democracy: How Politics Travels from the Streets to the Courts, and Back Again

New Arrival The Juridification of Democracy: How Politics Travels from the Streets to the Courts, and Back Again

The Juridification of Democracy: How Politics Travels from the Streets to the Courts, and Back Again

Author: Natascia Tosel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032932729
Published In: January 2026
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Description
Contents

Details

This book examines what it identifies as an increasing juridification of politics. This term refers to the use of law by both state and non-state social actors to advance their political demands and strategies.

Juridification is often portrayed as a depoliticising, even democratising, process; it is frequently attributed to the logics of neoliberal governance. In this view, a small number of litigants appealing to a few unelected judges for political change seems to bypass representative institutions and, with them, the democratic will. This book challenges that narrative. By tracing the genealogy of juridification and examining its performative role in present-day democratic practices, it offers a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between juridification and democracy. Combining theoretical inquiry with case studies of human rights adjudication, it reveals how courts have become arenas of political struggle where the supralegal values of democracy are named, claimed, and contested, and how this process reverberates far beyond the courtroom, supplementing rather than supplanting democratic decision-making.

The Juridification of Democracy will appeal to scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of political theory, law, critical theory, continental philosophy, socio-legal studies, and social and juridical anthropology.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Juridification as Neoliberal Depoliticisation: A Genealogy

Chapter 2: Breaking the Model: Otto Kirchheimer on the Juridification(s) of Liberal Democracy

Chapter 3: Is the Judiciary the New Sovereign Power? Juridification vs. Juristocracy

Chapter 4: How Are the Values of Democracy Defined? The Case of Vulnerability in the ECtHR Jurisprudence

Chapter 5: Juridification ‘from Below’. How Citizens Make Politics with Rights

Chapter 6: The Performativity of Juridification. Minoritarian, Anti-Majoritarian, or Democratic Politics?

Conclusion. Juridification and Democracy in Dark Times