Dr Yasser Kureshi
Yasser Kureshi is a Department Lecturer in South Asian Studies. He will also be the Course Director for the MSc and MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies in 2023. Working at the intersection of political science and public law, his research looks at the politics of unelected state institutions outside democratic contexts. In particular he studies the military and the judiciary and their impact on constitutional configurations and democratic outcomes in authoritarian and post-authoritarian states.
His recently published book, “Seeking Supremacy: The Pursuit of Judicial Power in Pakistan,” traces the evolution of the relationship between the judiciary and military in Pakistan, and seeks to explain why Pakistan's high courts shifted from loyal deference to the military to open competition, and confrontation, with military and civilian institutions. He develops a audience-based approach for understanding judicial behavior to explain this shift in judicial-military relations, and demonstrates how this framework can explain variation and change in judicial-military relations around the world.
His other research on judicial politics examines the emergence and characteristics of populist courts around the world, and the role anti-corruption jurisprudence can play in facilitating democratic backsliding.
Beyond courts, Kureshi is also undertaking research on democratic backsliding and authoritarianism in South Asia, military constitutionalism in Asia, federalism and constitutional decentralization in hybrid and tutelary regimes, and the formation of legal cultures.
