10: Courts in Authoritarian Regimes

Why do authoritarian rulers build (independent) courts? This week we look at what courts do for authoritarian regimes, such as keeping officials in line, reassuring investors and prosecuting opponents. We also consider how the same courts can apply the law in ordinary cases and defer to the regime in political ones.

Mandatory readings

Moustafa, Tamir. “Law versus the State: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt.” Law & Social Inquiry 28, no. 4 (2003): 883-930. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2003.tb00826.x

Shen-Bayh, Fiona. “Strategies of Repression: Judicial and Extrajudicial Methods of Autocratic Survival.” World Politics 70, no. 3 (2018): 321-357. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887118000047

Harvey, Cole J. “Can Courts in Nondemocracies Deter Election Fraud? De Jure Judicial Independence, Political Competition, and Election Integrity.” American Political Science Review 116, no. 4 (2022): 1325-1339. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055422000090

Optional readings

Staton, Jeffrey K., and Will H. Moore. “Judicial Power in Domestic and International Politics.” International Organization 65, no. 3 (2011): 553-587. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818311000130

Moustafa, Tamir. “Law and courts in authoritarian regimes.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10, no. 1 (2014): 281-299. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030532

Ginsburg, Tom, and Tamir Moustafa, eds. Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes. Cambridge University Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511814822

Finkel, Jodi. “Judicial Reform as Insurance Policy: Mexico in the 1990s.” Latin American Politics and Society 47, no. 1 (2005): 87-113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2005.tb00302.x

North, Douglass C., and Barry R. Weingast. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England.” The Journal of Economic History 49, no. 4 (1989): 803-832. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700009451

Kureshi, Yasser. “When Judges Defy Dictators: An Audience-Based Framework to Explain the Emergence of Judicial Assertiveness against Authoritarian Regimes.” Comparative Politics 53, no. 2 (2021): 233-257. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041521x15899127697291

Cao, Guangyu, Chenran Liu, and Li-An Zhou. “Suing the government under weak rule of law: Evidence from administrative litigation reform in China.” Journal of Public Economics 222 (2023): 104895. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104895

Ríos-Figueroa, Julio, and Fiona Shen-Bayh. “Courts in the Global South.” Annual Review of Political Science 28, no. 1 (2025): 151-171. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-040623-113225