2004 Award Committee: Mark Kessler, Bates College, Chair; Roger Hartley, University of Arizona; Tom Keck, Syracuse University.

Recipient: Tamir Moustafa, University of Wisconsin

Dissertation: "Law Versus the State: The Expansion of Constitutional Power in Egypt, 1980-2001"

Dissertation Chair: Joel Migdal, University of Washington

Citation: Tamir Moustafa's original, creative, and interdisciplinary dissertation emerged as the most outstanding among an impressive group of contenders. Moustafa begins by assessing why an authoritarian state, Egypt, created an independent constitutional court and then traces the complex relationship between the state and this court over time. The court provided benefits to the regime by supporting and protecting rights of private property and, thus, encouraged foreign investment during a time of economic stagnation. But the court also rendered decisions that threatened the regime by supporting claims of opposition parties and human rights organizations, institutions that in turn offered important sources of political support to the court. The decisions perceived as a threat by the regime, and the political alliances that resulted, led the regime to eventually undermine the court's political support structures and, ultimately, the powers of the court itself.

The important questions raised in this dissertation have broad implications for understanding contemporary movements toward democratization, the role of constitutional courts in developing societies, and the related judicialization of politics. These questions are clearly and persuasively placed in the context of multiple scholarly literatures and debates in rational choice institutionalism, comparative political research on state-civil society relationships, and comparative public law. Moustafa skillfully employs findings from fifteen months of field research in Egypt to show that a basic premise of rational choice institutionalism, that reforms are instituted in order to provide credible commitments to property rights, illuminates the creation of an independent constitutional court. But, as important, he shows that this framework fails to recognize the profound significance of politics, political context, and political contestation after the reform is in place. Moustafa's research calls attention to historical contingency and the explanatory significance of political power, the dynamic interactions between judicial institutions and support structures in their environment, and the evolving nature of such institutions and their interactions with other actors. Addressing shortcomings in rational choice institutionalism by interpreting his findings in light of works in the state-civil society tradition, he offers an important theoretical corrective that is firmly ground in extraordinary empirical research.

Moustafa's research, thus, is both theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich. His mastery of various theoretical frameworks, their assumptions and consequences, and connections between and among them is clearly demonstrated in each of the beautifully written chapters. He is careful to explore not only the framework he develops, but also major alternatives identified in the diverse scholarly literatures upon which he draws. He blends together in a seamless way various sources of data-from close readings and quantitative analyses of court rulings, to interviews with many of the central participants, including high court justices, to extensive archival materials, to the many conversations and observations produced by his extensive field research. He then employs these findings with great dexterity to address significant theoretical questions as well as practical, policy issues of interest not only within public law, but more generally in the fields of comparative politics and political economy. This dissertation is a model of theoretically driven, substantively significant, and politically engaged research. It is therefore a pleasure for the Committee to name Tamir Moustafa the recipient of the 2004 Edward S. Corwin Award.

Although no honorable mention or runner-up category exists, the Committee wishes to acknowledge the excellent dissertations of Mathew Manweller (completed at the University of Oregon) and Martin Sweet (completed at the University of Wisconsin).