Judicialization of Politics - Oxford Handbooks

The judicialization of politics—the reliance on courts and judicial means for addressing core moral predicaments, public policy questions, and political controversies—is arguably one of the most significant phenomena of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century government. Armed with newly acquired judicial review procedures, national high courts worldwide have been frequently asked to resolve a range of issues from the scope of expression and religious liberties and privacy to property, trade and commerce, education, immigration, labor, and environmental protection. This article analyzes the scope, nature, and causes of the judicialization of politics, as well as judicial behavior, recent jurisprudence of courts and tribunals worldwide, and the judicialization of “mega-politics” or “pure” politics—the transfer to courts of contentious issues of an outright political nature and significance. Questions of pure politics include electoral processes and outcomes, restorative justice, regime legitimacy, executive prerogatives, collective identity, and nation building. These developments reflect the demise of the “political question” doctrine, and mark a transition to what is termed “juristocracy.”