Rule By Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes

Description

I recently took a comparative constitutional law class at my law school. Even though my school is one of the best for international law, I felt it really lacked depth when we discussed courts in illiberal countries like China. Frankly, this book was much more useful than that class.

I purchased this book because I am currently doing research on judicial systems in Asia under authoritarian control. The articles provide both a theoretical framework for how courts operate in such environments and a selection of case studies from all over the world. The overarching theme is that authoritarian regimes in many cases actually provide an illiberal form of rule of law for their courts, rather than simply treating them as a facade. I thought the chapters on Singapore (Silverstein), Chile (Hilbank), Egypt (Moustafa), and and Turkey (Shambayati) were particularly insightful and made me look at courts and judges in these regimes differently.

On a personal note, I wish the book had included one more chapter looking at another judicial system in Asia. Given recent events last year, a chapter on Pakistan would have been very interesting. I also think the book would have benefitted from a chapter exploring the patronage and corruption that authoritarian leaders in Southeast Asia used to influence judges, such as Suharto in Indonesia or Mahathir in Malaysia.

Overall, this is a great book and I hope it encourages more research in this field.