S.J.D. Candidate
asaidirabah at sjd.law.harvard.edu
Dissertation
Evaluating the Global Model of Judicial Self-Governance: A Comparative and Normative Constitutional Theory
Modern constitutional democracies entrust judges with significant authority over their own governance – court administration, judicial selection, promotion, and discipline – a phenomenon commonly referred to as judicial self-governance (JSG). This arrangement, institutionalized through judicial councils, often with a majority of judges, has become a global practice actively promoted by international and regional bodies such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: over 70 percent of states now maintain some form of council for the judiciary, compared with roughly 10 percent in 1980. The core premise is that these bodies can safeguard judicial independence from the political branches while preserving a degree of accountability. Yet JSG bodies across jurisdictions have generated troubling patterns of political capture, judicial corporatism, and managerial drift, while some states that rejected the council model altogether exhibit robust judicial independence.
Because judicial independence is indispensable to the rule of law, the allocation of authority over judicial governance is a constitutional question of the first order. This dissertation develops a constitutional theory of when and under what conditions judicial self-governance is a legitimate institutional arrangement, drawing on comparative analysis across a range of jurisdictions to provide guidance for domestic reform and supranational standard-setting.
Fields of Research and Supervisors
- Comparative Constitutional Law and Judicial Independence with Professor Vicki C. Jackson, Harvard Law School, Principal Faculty Supervisor
- Constitutional Theory and Separation of Powers with Professor Nikolas Bowie, Harvard Law School
- Global Governance with Professor Gerald L. Neuman, Harvard Law School
Additional Research Interests
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Constitutional Theory
- Legal History
- EU Law
- Public International Law
Education
- Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2026 – Present
- Harvard Law School, LL.M., 2025-2026 (requirements fulfilled, degree waived)
- University of Amsterdam, LL.M. (Constitutional and Administrative Law), 2023-2025
- University of Amsterdam, LL.B., 2019-2023
Additional Information
- Languages: English, Dutch, Arabic, Latin
Last Updated: June 11, 2026