Introduction: Constitutional Courts and Populism
This mini-symposium is a joint project between the editors of the Verfassungsblog and the editors of I-Connect. We have brought together a number of prominent scholars, working on different issues,...
View ArticlePopulist Constitutions – A Contradiction in Terms?
The meaning of “populism” is deeply contested. It is striking, though, that many observers appear to agree on one point: whatever else it is, populism is inherently hostile to the mechanisms and,...
View ArticlePopulism and the Courts
The antagonism of populist governments to apex courts is a matter of historical record, starting with Peronism, the first time that an openly populist movement established its own government....
View ArticlePopulist Constitutionalism and the Democratic Minimum Core
Democratic “populism” is on the rise worldwide. In the last decade, Latin America has seen a wave of populist, neo-Bolivarian political change; Hungary and Poland have seen the election of nationalist...
View ArticleCourts in a Populist World
“I did not come to in order to be loved but in order to voice the sentiments of the public,” said Minister Miri Regev. Meanwhile, an Opposition Member of Knesset exclaimed that “we are here because we...
View ArticleTrapped in the Age of Trump: the American Supreme Court and 21st Century...
The American Supreme Court is currently ill-equipped to confront populism. The Court’s deficiency is not because of the political balance between justices nominated by Republican Presidents and those...
View ArticleSafeguarding Democratic Institutions
A discussion of courts and populism begs for definitional boundaries. While courts are generally institutionally confined, the same cannot be said for populism, a political moniker that risks...
View ArticlePopulism and Judicial Backlash in the United States and Europe
Common criticisms of judicial activism stretch from the somewhat outdated but nonetheless repeatedly re-emerging argument of courts’ “counter-majoritarian difficulty”1)Alexander M. Bickel, The Least...
View ArticlePopulism and the Turkish Constitutional Court: the Game Broker, the Populist...
Populist strategies have for some time been an integral part of Turkish political life employed dominantly by the right wing political parties.1)For populism as a discursive strategy in Turkey see...
View ArticleIn Defense of Judicial Populism: Lessons from Colombia
In 2005, the Colombian Constitutional Court upheld an amendment allowing presidential reelection. An extremely popular President elected for the 2002-2006 period, Álvaro Uribe, was behind the reform....
View ArticleWorking Well Is The Best Strategy: Judges under Populism
Introduction: foes of all stripes Let’s start with this truism—no administration, populist or not, wants courts meddling with them and checking on their power. Administrations often react to what they...
View ArticleJudges Speaking for the People: Judicial Populism beyond Judicial Decisions
We typically think of courts as victims or targets of populist politics, however we define the latter. Staffed by elites appointed by previous governments, high courts are indeed obvious targets for...
View ArticlePopulist Constitutionalism
Populist engagement with constitution-making and constitutional reform forms a distinctive, and in significant ways worrying, tendency. Populism is explicitly present in the constitutional politics of...
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