Comparative Query - Politicians in Courts

[Menachem]

My colleague Yoav Dotan and myself are currently working on a research
project "Litigating Legislators: Politicians in Courts" that deals with the
questions of why political parties and individual politicians IN ISRAEL
frequently turn to court litigation instead of using political channels in
their efforts to affect public policies? Why is litigation regarded as a
desirable avenue of action for legislators who harm their own legislative
autonomy by turning to courts?
The initial paper was presented last week in the APSA conference in
Washington DC.
It should emphasized that we are not interested in cases of which
politicians are appealing to higher courts on decisions related to criminal
convictions by lower court.  We look for litigation in which politicians
take public matters to court (in a manner that resembles litigation by NGOs
and cause lawyers) as part of their everyday political activity.  Our main
case study is Israel, but we have found instances in some other countries.
We are not satisfied however with the absence of relevant research and the
scarcity of comparative court cases assembled so far and we look for
comparative data on similar experiences. We would appreciate any
information related to relevant comparative sources or court cases in other
countries.
Thanks in advance
Menachem Hofnung