ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies problems and challenges of courts in different legal systems with the idea to create an overview of the different strategies of disempowerment of courts. It seeks to enable democratic systems to understand even small or seemingly minor changes of court systems, which can be the starting point of much bigger attacks on court systems in liberal democracies. The chapter also identifies and structures the strategies of disempowerment of courts. The network of courts created a transnational system of rule of law, within which the courts are dynamically interacting with each other. Within the system of separation of powers the developments shifted political powers toward the judiciary. Misusing constitutional ideas with bad intentions can easily turn ‘the migration of constitutional ideas’ into manipulative creation of authoritarian concepts, which seems to have a legitimate foundation in comparative constitutional law. The extent to which governments are legally able to influence the appointment of judges is very divergent.
