ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the book’s objective of analyzing in a holistic manner the domestic and international legal regimes concerning coups d’état, with concrete examples of the best practices among decisions of domestic courts of countries that have experienced coups from around the world. After a coup, the Judiciary is usually not dissolved, unlike the Cabinet and the Legislature, because judicial affirmation of the regime installed by the coup confers legitimacy upon the coup and judges are needed to uphold ‘law and order’ imposed by the usurper of power. In this connection, judges could be criminally liable domestically and/or internationally for failing to discharge their judicial duty independently and impartially to uphold fundamental rights and freedoms as well as punish usurpers, their accomplices and collaborators for their abuses amounting to serious violations of human rights or even crimes of international concern.
