When Courts Stop Checking Power. How Adversarial Justice is Failing Democracy.

📄 YouTube Description

Across many established democracies, courts remain formally independent—yet increasingly inaccessible in practice.

Rising legal costs, shrinking access to legal aid, and the growth of self-represented litigants have fundamentally altered how justice operates. Adversarial legal systems, designed for equality of arms and professional advocacy, now amplify power imbalances instead of correcting them. Challenges to state power are filtered out on procedural grounds, while judicial deference quietly expands executive authority.

This video examines a structural accountability gap emerging within modern justice systems.

Drawing on constitutional theory, socio-legal research, and lived institutional realities, it explores:
• how procedural justice can undermine substantive justice
• why affordability is a constitutional issue, not an administrative one
• how self-representation exposes systemic design failure
• the role of judicial deference in democratic erosion
• epistemic injustice and moral injury within adversarial systems
• why judicial self-governance struggles to correct structural bias
• and how arbitration-first justice offers a viable model of democratic repair

The argument advanced is not anti-judicial, but pro-constitutional:
courts function best when they are accessible, when they engage substantively with claims, and when justice system design reflects contemporary social conditions.

This video is intended for lawyers, judges, policy-makers, academics, journalists, and citizens concerned with the future of democratic accountability.

💬 Invitation to Comment

I welcome thoughtful, evidence-based discussion in the comments.

In particular:
• How does your legal system treat self-represented litigants?
• Where do you see judicial deference strengthening—or weakening—accountability?
• Should courts remain default arenas for complex, unequal disputes?
• Could arbitration-first or trauma-informed models improve access and legitimacy?

Please keep discussion respectful and substantive. Disagreement is welcome; dismissal is not.

📚 Source & Authorship

This video is based on the paper:
“From Judicial Deference to Democratic Repair: Why the Failure of Adversarial Justice Requires Structural Redesign”
by Dr. Cora M. Stack, Ramanujan Memorial Award for Excellence in Academic Leadership (2025).

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#SeparationOfPowers
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