Tom Daly will provide a considered response to all 4 panellists’ critiques, focusing on the key themes, insights and challenges posed by each panellist. Panellists will be encouraged to engage in frank discussion of the demerits and merits, omissions and oversights in the author’s argument in The Alchemists book, as well as the unanswered questions the book poses. The overall aim is to produce a cutting-edge, frank and stimulating debate on the role of courts as democracy-builders. This issue continues to grow in relevance, as evidenced by the recent and proposed establishment of constitutional courts in states such as Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Sri Lanka, and the growing challenges facing regional human rights courts in Europe, the Americas, and Africa to support democratisation processes.