IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/lawdev/v4y2011i3n4.html

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

    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. repec:cup:apsrev:v:61:y:1967:i:02:p:417-427_13 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Lorenzo Crippa, 2025. "Do corporate regulations deter or stimulate investment? The effect of the OECD anti-bribery convention on FDI," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 415-441, September.
    3. Ala'a Zuhair Mansour & Aidi Ahmi & Oluwatoyin Muse Johnson Popoola, 2021. "The Interaction Effect of Personality Factor on Capability and Competence Requirement," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, March.
    4. Dang, Trung Chinh & Van, Huong Vu & Van, Dao Le, 2025. "E-government and corruption in an emerging country: New perspectives from a spatiotemporal approach," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    5. Maciej Tymiński & Piotr Koryś, 2002. "Corruption. A Review of Selected Conceptions," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 6.
    6. Vita, Giuseppe Di, 2021. "Political corruption and legislative complexity: Two sides of same coin?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 136-147.
    7. Mevliyar Er, 2008. "Corruption from the Islamic perspective," Post-Print hal-03892298, HAL.
    8. 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.
    9. Tkatchenko-Schmidt, Elena & Renton, Adrian & Gevorgyan, Ruzanna & Davydenko, Ludmila & Atun, Rifat, 2008. "Prevention of HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users in Russia: Opportunities and barriers to scaling-up of harm reduction programmes," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 162-171, February.
    10. Mario Fernando & Nilupulee Liyanagamage & D. M. Sachinthanee Dissanayake, 2025. "Don't Cry for Me Sri Lanka: Beyond Individualisation Towards Responsible Policy Capacity in Public Sector Administration," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(4), pages 377-392, October.
    11. Mauro, Sara Giovanna & Cinquini, Lino & Pianezzi, Daniela, 2021. "New Public Management between reality and illusion: Analysing the validity of performance-based budgeting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(6).
    12. Yan, Jia & Oum, Tae Hoon, 2014. "The effect of government corruption on the efficiency of US commercial airports," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 119-132.
    13. Marina Cavalieri & Calogero Guccio & Domenico Lisi & Ilde Rizzo, 2020. "Does Institutional Quality Matter for Infrastructure Provision? A Non-parametric Analysis for Italian Municipalities," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(3), pages 521-562, November.
    14. Fakhrul Islam & Anindyta Deb Ananya, 2016. "Reducing Corruption through Enhancing Public Service Ethics in Bangladesh," International Journal of Social Science Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, March.
    15. repec:ces:ifodic:v:9:y:2011:i:2:p:16132604 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Thorsten Auer & Karin Knorr & Kirsten Thommes, 2023. "Long‐term effects of institutional conditions on perceived corruption – A study on organizational imprinting in post‐communist countries," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 478-497, April.
    17. Stephen D. Morris, 2011. "Forms of Corruption," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 9(02), pages 10-14, July.
    18. Kayla S. Canelo, 2022. "Citations to Interest Groups and Acceptance of Supreme Court Decisions," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 189-222, March.
    19. Peterson K. Ozili, 2019. "Bank loan loss provisioning during election years: cross-country evidence," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 413-431, December.
    20. Gianmarco Daniele & Benny Geys, 2015. "Exposing politicians’ ties to criminal organizations: the effects of local government dissolutions on electoral outcomes in southern Italian municipalities," Working Papers 2015/41, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    21. Machira J. Mwangi, 2015. "Human Activities and Sustainability of Tourist Sites," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(7), pages 363-372, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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.degruyterbrill.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.