Author Meets Critic: "Undue Process" by Fiona Shen-Bayh

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

Why do autocrats bother holding political trials when outcomes are presumed known from the start? In “Undue Process: Persecution and Punishment in Autocratic Courts” (Cambridge University Press, 2022), author Fiona Shen-Bayh develops an original theoretical framework to explain when and why autocrats weaponize the courts and undertake judicial strategies of repression. Focusing on autocracies in Africa since independence, Shen-Bayh draws on fine-grained archival data on regime threats and state repression to explain why political trials are often political purges in disguise, providing legal cover for the persecution of regime rivals.

This Author-Meets-Critic panel brings together leading experts in comparative politics and law and society to reflect on the contributions of the book and discuss the state of research in these subfields. Shen-Bayh will open the panel with a short presentation of the book’s core findings and extensions for future research. Following this introduction, panelists Dan Slater (Michigan), Tamir Moustafa (Simon Fraser), Rachel Riedl (Cornell), Rachel Stern (Berkeley), and Jeffrey Staton (Emory) will engage in a critical discussion of the work by situating its findings in the broader comparative literature. Each panelist brings expertise on a diverse set of regions (Asia, Africa, and Latin America), substantial themes (comparative authoritarianism and judicial politics), and research methodologies (case studies, archival research, and quantitative analysis). "Due Process” provides a novel perspective on the role that courts play in autocratic survival; this panel promises an engaging debate on what that perspective entails for the study of autocratic power, institutions, and rule of law in understudied contexts.

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Chair

• Fiona Shen-Bayh University of Maryland, College Park

Presenters

• Dan Slater University of Michigan

• Rachel Beatty Riedl Cornell University

• Rachel E. Stern University of California, Berkeley

• Jeffrey Staton Emory University

• Tamir Moustafa Simon Fraser University