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Informality and Courts: Comparative Perspectives

Informality and Courts: Comparative Perspectives

Author: Björn Dressel; Raul Sanchez-Urribarri; Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 9781399535250

Published In: December 2024
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Paperback Edition ISBN: 9781399535267

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Uses a comparative perspective to demonstrate how informal institutions and relations shape the composition and performance of courts globally.

Provides a novel account of the importance of informal relations and informal institutions to account for the study of courts at a global scale
Embeds the study of court performance in wider debates about clientelism, corruption, patronage, and democratic decline
Offers new perspectives on key debates within judicial studies, including appointments, judicial behaviour, judicial independence, and judicial reform
Includes new theoretical contributions and empirical analyses from leading scholars (about half based in/or from the Global South), focused on countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S

This volume explores an understudied aspect of courts: The extent to which informal institutions and relational networks (e.g., professional, clientelist, family etc.) relations affect how courts are organised and operate. For instance, to what extent can ‘good personal relations’ outweigh professional merits in judicial appointment processes? Or in what ways do international or domestic judicial networks help protect courts against other branches of power?

Our relational-institutional perspective allows us to better understand a variety of important processes for the comparative study of courts – including judicial appointments, judicial decision-making, judicial administration, institutional development, inter-branch relations, corruption, and court reform, among others. More importantly, an emphasis on informality sheds new light on the accountability role of courts in democratic regimes, at a time when democracy worldwide is at risk and authoritarian regimes are on the rise.

Bringing together the thoughts of scholars with different levels of seniority and disciplinary expertise, this volume offers cross-national engagement with theory, providing systematic analyses of the configuration, operation, and roles of informal institutions and relations, and their importance in different socio-political contexts and legal systems.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

Part I. Theory, Concepts and Methods

1. Informality and Courts: Towards a Relational Perspective on Judicial Politics

Björn Dressel, Raul Sanchez Urribarri and Alexander Stroh

2. Paradoxical informalities? On the mutual logic of informal relationships and institutions

Daniel M. Brinks

3. Convergence of de jure and de facto judicial independence? The role of informal institutions

Andrea Pozas Loyo and Julio Rios Figueroa

4. The Ties that Bind: Perspectives on Judicial Loyalties

Raul Sanchez Urribarri

Part II. Political Relations

5. Pliant Courts, Recalcitrant Chiefs and Judicial Clientelism in Authoritarian Regimes

Alexei Trochev

6. Informality and Judicial Decision-Making: The Role of Judge Networks in Southeast Asia

Björn Dressel

7. When Informal Ties with Political Leaders Protect Judges’ Fragile Independence: South Africa and Namibia after Apartheid

Peter Brett

8. Judicial Resistance: The Shield and The Sword of Informality

Katarína Šipulová

Part III. Professional Relations

9. The Bar with the Bench: Informal Legal Networks and Judicial Behaviour in Pakistan

Yasser Kureshi

10. Education versus Experience? An Elite Legal Dynasty among Federal Judges in the United States

Abigail V. Hassett and Kirk A. Randazzo

11. Argentina’s ‘Judicial Family’: Mapping Family Connections in the Argentine Provincial Federal Judiciary

Andrea Castagnola and Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos

12. Gender, Informality and Courts: Mapping Theoretical Approaches

David Kosař and Marína Urbániková

Part IV. International Ties

13. Social Networks and Nonlegal Sanctions: Compliance with International Courts

Shai Dothan

14. Informality and Multi-level Judicial Appointment Processes in African Regional Courts

Alexander Stroh and Diana Kisakye

15. Disseminating Ideas and Influence Through Transnational Peer-Education

Maartje De Visser

16. Good Intentions, Questionable Advice: Explaining Reform Networks’ Disappointing Results

Linn Hammergren

Index

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