Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies

Maria Popova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. She is the winner of the 2007 Edward S. Corwin Award from the American Political Science Association for best dissertation in the field of public law and the 2006 Sumner Dissertation Prize in the Department of Government at Harvard University. Her writings have been published in Comparative Political Studies, Demokratizatsiya, Europe-Asia Studies, the Journal of East European Law and Konstitutsionnoe Pravo: Vostochnoevropeiskoe Obozrenie.

• 1. What is judicial independence?; 2. Judges and politicians: theories about the origins of judicial independence; 3. What can a focused comparison of Russia and Ukraine tell us about the origins of independent court; 4. The role of Ukrainian and Russian courts in the provision of free and fair elections: judicial independence from politicians during the 2002 Rada and the 2003 Duma campaigns; 5. The role of Ukrainian and Russian courts in the provision of press freedom: judicial independence in defamation lawsuits, 1998–2003; 6. Politicians' capacity to pressure the courts; 7. Politicians' willingness to pressure the courts, 1998–2004 and beyond.

'… Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies is an interesting and noteworthy contribution to the literature on courts in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine. It demonstrates a masterful combination of various research methods, a coherent and convincing narrative and the courage to study a highly politicised and understudied topic.' Yuliya Zabyelina, Europe-Asia Studies