This book presents a searching critique of excessive reliance on courts as 'democracy-builders' in states emerging from authoritarian rule.

Tom Gerald Daly is a Fellow of Melbourne Law School, Associate Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law at Edinburgh Law School, and a consultant on public law, human rights, and democracy-building. He has previously clerked for the Chief Justice of Ireland, and has worked at the Judicial Studies Institute and Edinburgh University's Global Justice Academy. As a consultant, he has worked on Council of Europe, European Union, International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), and Irish government projects.

Preface: our court obsession; Acknowledgments; Table of cases; List of abbreviations; Introduction: an onerous role for courts as democracy-builders; 1. The core concept: democratisation; 2. The rise and limits of constitutional courts as democracy-builders; 3. The rise and limits of human rights courts as democracy-builders; 4. 'Democratisation jurisprudence': framing courts' democracy-building roles; 5. Domestic democratisation jurisprudence in action: Brazil since 1988; 6. Regional democratisation jurisprudence: shaping democracy from outside; 7. What should courts do in a young democracy? Rethinking our approach; Concluding thoughts: moving beyond our court obsession; Bibliography; Index.