Politics and Courts in Central Europe

Abstract

Recently political backlash against constitutional courts seems to have become a general phenomenon in several Central European countries. This backlash presupposes that courts have assumed enough power to generate a reaction amongst dominant political actors—but the degree to which this power and authority has actually constrained these dominant actors has not yet been systematically examined. The JUDICON project has elaborated a systematic method to measure the strength of judicial decisions. This Panel will use the JUDICON dataset to answer the general question: to what extent have courts constrained the legislature's room for manoeuvre in politically salient issues? Four country studies will elucidate whether courts have indeed stalled highly important policy processes, or whether this is a misleading narrative propagated by legislative majorities.