Judicial Loyalties and Resistance in Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia growing political backlash, politicization, and interference in courts are threatening Australias enduring commitments to freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and stable governance in the region. This study of both formal and informal judicial resistance strategies will reveal the potential forand the limits ofjudges safeguarding democratic governance when pressures on liberal democratic values and institutions are intensifying. By creating the first databases of high court judges and high-profile cases in the region, the project will also directly benefit researchers and policymakers by providing accessible evidence on key judicial actors, practices, and trends in the region. The project will also refine a network-focused approach to judicial behaviour that recognizes the informality of politics in Southeast Asia and analyses the social, political, and ideational networks of judgesthus generating both academic and practical insights in