Constitutions, Courts Pols

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores the contours, causes, and consequences of the increasing importance of constitutions and courts in some of the world’s new democracies. It introduces students to the main concepts used to describe, theories developed to explain, and contemporary debates about, how politics shape constitutions and courts, and how constitutions and courts shape politics. The course is divided into three parts. In the first part, we consider the concepts, debates, issues, and institutions that form the basis of the comparative study of constitutions and courts, for instance, judicial review, judicial power, and judicial independence. In the second part of the course, we examine a set of theoretical questions that lie at the heart of the comparative study of constitutions and courts: what drives constitutional birth, death, and content; why elected leaders delegate power to courts; why people litigate to resolve political conflicts; why courts rule as they do; and why elected leaders obey (or ignore) judicial rulings. The last part of the course explores the roles courts may play in three critical domains – with regard to transitional justice, rights protection, and economic development – and considers constitutions and courts in four country cases: Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, and South Africa.