Beyond formal conceptions of judicial leadership

Silvia Suteu

Chapter 2 in Elgar Companion to Female Chief Justices in Comparative Perspective, 2026, pp 38-53 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter looks at informal feminist judicial influence, with the Romanian Constitutional Court as its case study. While women represent a majority in the Romanian judiciary, the Constitutional Court has never been led by a woman and has had few female justices. The chapter therefore sets out to explore the question of female leadership as influence short of formal leadership, with a focus on the role of the judge rapporteur. The chapter first examines the contextual parameters of gender balance in the Romanian judiciary and explains the exceptionalism of the Romanian Constitutional Court. Second, it discusses the role of the judge rapporteur in comparative perspective. Third, it illustrates this with a prominent decision of this Court, an attempted ban on gender studies. The chapter concludes that judge rapporteurs’ influence spans beyond framing effects in individual cases and can encompass modelling a novel decision-making methodology and more robust reason-giving overall.

Keywords: Romania; Romanian Constitutional Court; Informal leadership; Judge rapporteur; Feminised judiciary; Gender studies ban (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035308637
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