Tipping the Balance? Politics, Personalities and Institutions in the Philippine Supreme Court

The 2018 removal from office of Maria Lourdes Sereno, the first woman chief justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, provokes us to rethink our assumptions about the power of the judiciary within the democratic system of government. The judiciary is often regarded as the weakest branch of government, having no power of coercion and being dependent on the executive or the legislative branches of government for enforcement or compliance. The democratization movement that swept many parts of the world in the 1980s brought a new salience for courts in policing constitutional overreach and abuse of power that had been the hallmark of authoritarian regimes (Ginsburg 2003). Constitutional developments that granted courts review powers and autonomy have created opportunities for the judiciaries to test the efficacy of their authority and reshape their relations with political actors. Courts' performances in consolidating democracy and forging the rule of law in democratizing countries have been uneven; their authority has also been constantly challenged or under threat.