Informality and Courts

Björn Dressel is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University. Raul Sanchez-Urribarri is Senior Lecturer in Crime, Justice and Legal Studies at La Trobe University, Australia Alexander Stroh is Professor of Political Science at University of Bayreuth, Germany

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsPart I Theory, Concepts and Methods1. Informality and Courts: Towards a Relational Perspective on Judicial PoliticsBjörn Dressel, Raul Sanchez Urribarri and Alexander Stroh2. Paradoxical informalities? On the mutual logic of informal relationships and institutionsDaniel M. Brinks3. Convergence of de jure and de facto judicial independence? The role of informal institutionsAndrea Pozas Loyo and Julio Rios Figueroa4. The Ties that Bind: Perspectives on Judicial LoyaltiesRaul Sanchez UrribarriPart II Political Relations5. Pliant Courts, Recalcitrant Chiefs and Judicial Clientelism in Authoritarian RegimesAlexei Trochev6. Informality and Judicial Decision-Making: The Role of Judge Networks in Southeast AsiaBjörn Dressel7. When Informal Ties with Political Leaders Protect Judges’ Fragile Independence: South Africa and Namibia after ApartheidPeter Brett8. Judicial Resistance: The Shield and The Sword of InformalityKatarína ŠipulováPart III Professional Relations9. The Bar with the Bench: Informal Legal Networks and Judicial Behaviour in PakistanYasser Kureshi10. Education versus Experience? An Elite Legal Dynasty among Federal Judges in the United StatesAbigail V. Hassett and Kirk A. Randazzo11. Argentina’s ‘Judicial Family’: Mapping Family Connections in the Argentine Provincial Federal JudiciaryAndrea Castagnola and Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos12. Gender, Informality and Courts: Mapping Theoretical ApproachesDavid Kosař and Marína UrbánikováPart IV International Ties13. Social Networks and Nonlegal Sanctions: Compliance with International CourtsShai Dothan14. Informality and Multi-level Judicial Appointment Processes in African Regional CourtsAlexander Stroh and Diana Kisakye15. Disseminating Ideas and Influence Through Transnational Peer-EducationMaartje De Visser16. Good Intentions, Questionable Advice: Explaining Reform Networks’ Disappointing ResultsLinn HammergrenIndex

Most jurisprudence has nothing to say about informal relationships in courts. If mentioned at all, they are often singled out as peculiar pathologies of corrupt or autocratic regimes (usually in the East or South). This remarkably rich collection upends such easy forms of ignorance and simplification. It shows such relationships to be pervasive, multi-form, variable both in degree and kind, and very often central to the ways things work, both inside and outside the formal institutions of the law. Its contributions are scholarly, diverse, illuminating and – very often – astonishing in their range, variety and insights.