Law is inherently political, and courts are one of the best manifestations of the political dimension of a legal system.

Across the world, many political battles are fought and settled in the judicial process, including both high-level and grassroots politics. In exceptional circumstances, even the results of presiden­tial elections and other “palace wars” can be decided by judges.

297 studying courts, political scientists often focus on the judicialization of polit­ics, treating the judiciary as an arena for various political battles to settle. However, this view of courts as a legal safeguard of democracy only captures one aspect of the complex relationship between courts and politics. As polit­ical battlegrounds, courts require legitimacy from both the state and the public. Yet, such legitimacy is not always given to the judiciary, particularly not in authoritarian contexts. Therefore, it is not surprising that many socio- legal studies on judicial politics in Asia are situated in the context of democra­tization. The two studies on Cambodia and Taiwan in this section offer good examples of how democratization gives rise to political struggles in Asian courts.

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