Introduction: The Functions of Courts in Authoritarian Politics

Two decades ago, Martin Shapiro urged public law scholars to expand their horizons and begin studying "any public law other than constitutional law, any court other than the Supreme Court, any public lawmaker other then the judge, and any country other than the United States" (Shapiro 1989). Shapiro recognized that American public law scholarship stood at the margins of political science because it did not adequately engage the broad questions in the field0. Perhaps more importantly, Shapiro recognized that judicial institutions had become important political players in a number of countries and that a "judicialization of politics" was on the advance across much of the world.