Date & time
Venue
Phillipa Weeks Library, Level 4, Building 7, ANU Law School
Register for the event
Event description
Political polarization is increasing globally. In the seminar Prof. Iddo Porat would present his new, co-authored book (with Moshe Cohne-Eliya) that offers the first comprehensive comparative study of how political polarization reshapes the role and functioning of supreme and constitutional courts. Drawing on case studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India, Israel, Germany, Spain, and other jurisdictions, the book examines how courts are transformed when deep political and social divisions meet powerful judicial institutions. The book identifies the factors that drive courts toward partisanship, the mechanisms through which polarization alters judicial nominations, decision-making and public trust, and the broader implications for the rule of law and democratic stability. It also analyzes reform proposals aimed at reducing the political stakes surrounding courts or balancing their internal composition.
Speakers
Iddo Porat
Iddo Porat is a full professor of law at the College of Law and Business (CLB), Israel. He specializes in constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, and legal theory.
Porat is the recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Residency Fellowship for 2023, a former Senior Fellow at the Center for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School (2017-2018), and Visiting Professor at San Diego Law School (2008-2009). Porat also taught at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. Porat’s books are “Proportionality and Constitutional Culture” (CUP, 2013, co-author with Moshe Cohen-Eliya), “Towering Judges: A Comparative Analysis of Constitutional Judges” (CUP, 2019 co-editor with Rehan Abeyratne) and “Polarization and Courts: Supreme and Constitutional Courts in the Age of Polarization” (forthcoming CUP, 2016, lead author with Moshe Cohen-Eliya). He has published extensively in leading law journals including the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, American Journal of Comparative Law, International Journal of Constitutional Law, Toronto Law Journal, and Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. His current research interest is in political polarization and its effects on apex courts from a comparative perspective.