POLI 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Judicial Independence, Negative Liberty

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 330
• Professor: Maria Popova

Document Summary

Judicial power: resources that enable courts to deliver unbinding decisions. = russian constitutional court not considered a powerful court (no authority to implement its decisions) Judicial power has increased tremendously around the globe in post-ww2 period = new trend of judicialization of politics. Judicial decision-making methods spread to institutions outside of judiciary (legal discourse starts dominating political discourse) Majoritarian principle (legislative majority can push through its interests) has given way to negative freedom principle = legislatures now have to shelter fundamental rights of citizens. Main theories that explain why there are independent courts in some countries and not in other. Regime type?: if we claim agency (actors) are important, which agents do we pay attention to? (judges, politicians, public?) Some people still claim judicial insulation is factor that predicts judicial independence: ignores the importance of informal institutions (when politicians really want it, they can undermine judicial independence)