How Judges (Self) Empower: Strategies of Judicial Empowerment

Tuesday 6 February

2.30pm-4pm

Lecture hall E102, Christopherson Higginson, Engineering, Durham University

How Judges (Self) Empower: Strategies of Judicial Empowerment, Yvonne Tew

When courts seek to strengthen their own institutional power, they often need to be strategic. In many fraught political contexts, judiciaries lack a history of asserting authority against powerful political actors. How can courts with fragile authority establish and enhance judicial power? Yvonne Tew explores the phenomenon of strategic judicial empowerment, offering an account of how and when courts deploy various strategies aimed at enhancing their institutional position vis-à-vis other branches of government. Drawing on examples from apex courts in Pakistan, Malawi, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom, it explores the ways in which judges use tools of statecraft to increase the effectiveness of their decisions and enhance their role in the constitutional order. This account explores the particular mechanisms that courts employ in service of self-empowerment, such as strategies of maxi-minimalism and mini-maximalism.

This talk will be based on Yvonne Tew, Strategic Judicial Empowerment (American Journal of Comparative Law, forthcoming).