The Juridification of Democracy

How Politics Travels from the Streets to the Courts, and Back Again
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-93272-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 206 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Law and Politics

This book examines what it identifies as an increasing juridification of politics. This term refers to the use of law by both state and non-state social actors to advance their political demands and strategies.

Juridification is often portrayed as a depoliticising, even democratising, process; it is frequently attributed to the logics of neoliberal governance. In this view, a small number of litigants appealing to a few unelected judges for political change seems to bypass representative institutions and, with them, the democratic will. This book challenges that narrative. By tracing the genealogy of juridification and examining its performative role in present-day democratic practices, it offers a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between juridification and democracy. Combining theoretical inquiry with case studies of human rights adjudication, it reveals how courts have become arenas of political struggle where the supralegal values of democracy are named, claimed, and contested, and how this process reverberates far beyond the courtroom, supplementing rather than supplanting democratic decision-making.

The Juridification of Democracy will appeal to scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of political theory, law, critical theory, continental philosophy, socio-legal studies, and social and juridical anthropology.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tosel, Natascia

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Rechtswissenschaften Allgemeines Verfahrens-, Zivilprozess- und Insolvenzrecht Allgemeines Prozessrecht, Kostenrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1: Juridification as Neoliberal Depoliticisation: A Genealogy

Chapter 2: Breaking the Model: Otto Kirchheimer on the Juridification(s) of Liberal Democracy

Chapter 3: Is the Judiciary the New Sovereign Power? Juridification vs. Juristocracy

Chapter 4: How Are the Values of Democracy Defined? The Case of Vulnerability in the ECtHR Jurisprudence

Chapter 5: Juridification ‘from Below’. How Citizens Make Politics with Rights

Chapter 6: The Performativity of Juridification. Minoritarian, Anti-Majoritarian, or Democratic Politics?

Conclusion. Juridification and Democracy in Dark Times

Über Autor(innen)

Natascia Tosel is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Political Studies, University of Verona, and an Assistant Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (CIEG), University of Lisbon. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from a joint doctoral program between the University of Padua and Université Paris 8 Vincennes–Saint-Denis. She has been a research fellow at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry in Berlin. Her research lies at the intersection of political and legal philosophy and feminist theory.