IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/lawdev/v4y2011i3n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Pathology of Judicialization: Politics, Corruption and the Courts in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Ugochukwu Basil

Abstract

Judicialization of politics, the practice whereby judicial power is expanded well beyond adjudication in purely orthodox terms to embrace the core of politics and governmental policy is becoming a global phenomenon. In this paper, I argue that despite its growing popularity and acceptability, the process of political judicialization should be contextually detailed. Using Nigeria as an example, I assert that, although there might be justification for judicial intervention in the countries of Africa, the prevalence of corruption in the judiciaries makes such intervention a double-edged sword, deserving adroit handling. I also argue that the judicialization of politics on the continent is fuel for corruption. As such, removing political questions from the courts, difficult as this might be, could be an important anti-corruption strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ugochukwu Basil, 2011. "The Pathology of Judicialization: Politics, Corruption and the Courts in Nigeria," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 59-87, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:4:y:2011:i:3:n:4
    DOI: 10.2202/1943-3867.1116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1943-3867.1116
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1943-3867.1116?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bryane Michael & Petter Langseth, 2004. "Foreign Sponsored Development Projects in Africa: The Dialogue between International and African Judicial Integrity Projects," Macroeconomics 0406005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Dobel, J. Patrick, 1978. "The Corruption of a State," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(3), pages 958-973, September.
    3. Gibson, James L. & Caldeira, Gregory A. & Spence, Lester Kenyatta, 2003. "The Supreme Court and the US Presidential Election of 2000: Wounds, Self-Inflicted or Otherwise?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 535-556, October.
    4. Paul Heywood, 1997. "Political Corruption: Problems and Perspectives," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 45(3), pages 417-435, August.
    5. Nye, J. S., 1967. "Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-Benefit Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(2), pages 417-427, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. George Economakis & Yorgos Rizopoulos & Dimitrios Sergakis, 2010. "Patterns of Corruption," Post-Print halshs-01968240, HAL.
    2. Ilufoye Sarafa Ogundiya, 2011. "Beyond the “Geography of Terrorism and Terror of Geography†Thesis," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 27(1), pages 57-91, March.
    3. Oguzhan Dincer & Michael Johnston, 2020. "Legal corruption?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 219-233, September.
    4. Andris Zimelis, 2020. "Corruption research: A need for an integrated approach," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 288-306, September.
    5. Maria Kravtsova & Aleksey Oshchepkov, 2019. "Market And Network Corruption," HSE Working papers WP BRP 209/EC/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    6. Mutascu, Mihai, 2009. "The effect of the government intervention in economy on corruption," MPRA Paper 16175, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Osipian, Ararat, 2007. "Misdeeds in the US higher education: Illegality versus corruption," MPRA Paper 8471, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Auer Daniel & Römer Friederike & Tjaden Jasper, 2020. "Corruption and the Desire to Leave Quasi-Experimental Evidence on Corruption as a Driver of Emigration Intentions," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-31, January.
    9. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    10. Gustavo Gouvêa Maciel & Luís de Sousa, 2018. "Legal Corruption and Dissatisfaction with Democracy in the European Union," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 653-674, November.
    11. Ferry, Laurence & Zakaria, Zamzulaila & Zakaria, Zarina & Slack, Richard, 2018. "Framing public governance in Malaysia: Rhetorical appeals through accrual accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 170-183.
    12. Ivanov, A. & Maslova, S., 2014. "Applying modelling in the process of anti-corruption expertise of legal regulation of public procurement," Working Papers 6382, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    13. Şerife Özşahin & Gülbahar Üçler, 2017. "The Consequences of Corruption on Inflation in Developing Countries: Evidence from Panel Cointegration and Causality Tests," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Pérez-Oviedo, Wilson & Cajas-Guijarro, John & Pinzón-Venegas, Kathia, 2024. "Corruption, unemployment, and clientelism: A Political Economy approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    15. Gong, Ting & Wu, Alfred M., 2012. "Does Increased Civil Service Pay Deter Corruption? Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 41815, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Sebastian I. Burduja & Rodica Milena Zaharia, 2019. "Romanian Business Leaders’ Perceptions of Business-to-Business Corruption: Leading More Responsible Businesses?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-27, October.
    17. Jeffrey Milyo & Adriana Cordis, 2013. "Measuring Public Corruption in the United States: Evidence from Administrative Records of Federal Prosecutions," Working Papers 1322, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    18. Matthew C. Rousu, 2018. "Using Show Tunes to Teach about Free (and Not-So-Free) Markets," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Winter 20), pages 111-128.
    19. Osipian, Ararat, 2007. "“Feed from the Service”: Corruption and Coercion in the State—University Relations in Central Eurasia," MPRA Paper 10818, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:4:y:2011:i:3:n:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.