One of the defining features of courts is their impartiality and neutrality. Courts are expected to operate according to a logic fundamentally different from the partisan logic of politics – a logic grounded in principled reasoning, consistency, and reliance on precedents and legal texts. Yet this image of the judiciary is eroding on an unprecedented scale across the globe. This happens as polarization rises, also globally, and the two phenomenon are related. As this book will show, surveying countries ranging from the United Kingdom to Brazil, Spain, the United States, Canada, and Israel rising polarization has dramatic effects on courts. Among other things the effects of polarization are a decline in public trust in courts’ independence from politics, and a growing perception – especially regarding apex and constitutional courts – that they are becoming politically partisan institutions.