210158 SE M7 b/Diss: Constitutional Courts as Political Actors? (2013W)

Constitutional courts are increasingly powerful actors in many democracies and substantively influence political processes and policy outcomes. This block seminar provides an introduction to the political science analysis of such courts in the tradition of the `judicial politics` literature. It addresses four general questions: (1) How are constitutional courts organized? (2) What drives the behavior of constitutional judges? (3) To what extent do constitutional courts affect legislation in Western democracies and does this influence amount to a general judicialization of politics? (4) How can we normatively evaluate the role of constitutional courts in democracies and how is this evaluation influenced by political science findings on the operation of constitutional courts?
On the theoretical level, the seminar first contrasts legal and political science perspectives on analyzing courts. Second, it introduces different political science approaches such as the attitudinalist and rational choice schools in the United States and different approaches used to analyze constitutional courts in Europe. The empirical work covered in the course focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court, constitutional courts in Europe, especially the German Bundesverfassungsgericht and the French Conseil Constitutionnel, and the European Court of Justice.