1. Introduction; Part I. Dominant-Party Democracies: 2. Supreme Court of Singapore and the promise of enforceable constitutional conventions; 3. Malaysian courts and electoral fraud; 4. Hong Kong Courts and constitutional contradictions; Part II. Dynamic Democracies: 5. Supreme Court of India and criminality in politics; 6. Constitutional court of Taiwan and calibrated judicial review; 7. Constitutional court of Korea and systemic electoral barriers; Part III. Fragile Democracies: 8. Constitutional court of Thailand and partisan judges; 9. Supreme Court of Pakistan: accommodation and defiance of military authority; 10. Supreme Court of Bangladesh and defensive judicial review; Part IV. Democratic Values and Courts in Comparative Perspective: 11. Democratic values and the conundrum of unconstitutional constitutional amendments; 12. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
This book illuminates how law and politics interact in the judicial doctrines and explores how democracy sustains and is sustained by the exercise of judicial power.
Po Jen Yap is an Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), Faculty of Law, where he specialises in comparative constitutional law. He graduated from the National University of Singapore with an LL.B. degree and he obtained LL.M. qualifications from both Harvard Law School and University College London. He also has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge. He is an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore and an Attorney at Law in the State of New York (USA). His publications include Constitutional Dialogue in Common Law Asia (2015).
'Po Jen Yap's new book is a must-read in the growing literature on
the role of constitutional courts in democratic stabilization. Its
fine-grained analyses demonstrates that the political power and
vulnerability of courts in protecting democratic processes as well
as their own independence is not fixed or prescribable in the
abstract, but varies with the state of democratization and party
contestation in which they operate.' Stephen Gardbaum, MacArthur
Foundation Professor of International Justice and Human Rights,
University of California, Los Angeles
'A fascinating tour through the fraught relations between courts
and political power. Professor Yap provides a nuanced account of
how constitutional courts in Asia balance precariously between
semi-authoritarian dominant regimes and the live wire of electoral
politics. A magnificent, sophisticated contribution that enriches
our understanding of judicial politics in an era of weak democratic
institutions.' Samuel Issacharoff, Reiss Professor of
Constitutional Law, New York University
'Po Jen Yap's analysis of the role of Asian courts in three types
of democracies illuminates how the possibilities for effective
judicial action in connection with major political issues varies
according to the type of democracy in which the courts are located.
It is an important contribution to the project of integrating
comparative constitutional law with comparative political studies.'
Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard
University, Massachusetts
'Professor Yap's elegant, concise book is an important contribution
to comparative constitutional studies … Yap's book is a major
advance in integrating Asian constitutionalism into comparative
constitutionalism more generally and into the comparative law of
democracy in particular.' Richard H. Pildes, ICON
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