CfA: “Courts as an Arena for Social Change”

Frist: 31. Januar 2021

2nd Conference of the Research Group on Institutions for Conflict Resolution (8./9. Juli 2022, Universität Leiden, Niederlande)

“Courts as an Arena for Social Change”

In recent years, courts around the world have increasingly been asked to decide on cases that deal with highly sensitive societal and political issues. ‘Legal mobilization’ and ‘public interest litigation’ are on the rise. Citizens and civil society organizations may feel that other institutions are failing them, whether due to political divisions, incompetence, state capture or for other reasons. Some even see courts as the only state institution capable of providing long-term solutions to major societal problems.

These developments give rise to various questions with regard to the causes of the changing role of courts. Which processes move citizens to take socially charged issues that are the subject of ongoing political and societal debates to the judiciary? What roles do governments, parliaments, courts and civil society play in these processes?