Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:19:04.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Friends and Interveners

Interest Group Litigation in a Comparative Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Paul M. Collins Jr.  and
Lauren A. McCarthy
Paul M. Collins Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Lauren A. McCarthy
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
*
Contact the corresponding author at [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Interest groups attempt to shape the content of law and policy in a variety of venues, including the legal system. Though the bulk of research dedicated to understanding interest group participation in litigation occurs in the context of the United States, there have been growing efforts to explore this important topic from a cross-national perspective. We contribute to this literature by investigating interest group amicus curiae and intervener activity across 11 English-speaking high courts during the 1969–2002 era. Our results support our theoretical argument that institutional features of courts and nations heavily shape levels of organizational litigation, including the power of judicial review, the rules governing third-party participation, and the presence of a bill of rights. This research informs our understanding of institutional design, social movement litigation, and the democratic nature of courts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 55 - 80
Copyright
© 2017 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Previous versions of this article were presented at the 2015 UMass Interdisciplinary Legal Studies Colloquium and the 2015 annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, and to faculty and graduate students in the Department of Political Science at Binghamton University. We are grateful to the participants at those presentations for their feedback. We also thank Kirsten Carlson, Bert Kritzer, the editor, and the anonymous reviewers for their very thoughtful comments on this research and Alisa Cameron for her excellent research assistance.

References

Alarie, Benjamin R. D., and Andrew J. Green. 2010. “Interventions at the Supreme Court of Canada: Accuracy, Affiliation, and Acceptance.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 48 (3/4): 381–410.Google Scholar
Angell, Ernest. 1967. “The Amicus Curiae American Development of English Institutions.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 16 (4): 1017–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Autheman, Violane. 2004. “Global Lessons Learned: Constitutional Courts, Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law.” International Foundation for Electoral Systems Rule of Law White Paper Series, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R., and Beth L. Leech. 1998. Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxi, Upendra. 1985. “Taking Suffering Seriously: Social Action Litigation in the Supreme Court of India.” Third World Legal Studies 4:107–32.Google Scholar
Beyers, Jan, Rainer Eising, and William Maloney. 2008. “Researching Interest Group Politics in Europe and Elsewhere: Much We Study, Little We Know?” West European Politics 31 (6): 1103–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickel, Alexander. 1962. The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Brady, Henry E., Sidney Verba, and Kay Lehman Schlozman. 1995. “Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation.” American Political Science Review 89 (2): 271–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodie, Ian. 2002. Friends of the Court: The Privileging of Interest Group Litigants in Canada. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A., and John R. Wright. 1990. “Amici Curiae before the Supreme Court: Who Participates, When, and How Much?” Journal of Politics 52 (3): 782–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. 2006. “Courts, Rights, and Democratic Participation.” Comparative Political Studies 39 (1): 50–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coates, Dennis, Jac C. Heckelman, and Bonnie Wilson. 2007. “Determinants of Interest Group Formation.” Public Choice 133 (3–4): 377–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Paul M. Jr., 2008. Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Paul M. Jr.,, Pamela C. Corley, and Jesse Hamner. 2014. “Me Too? An Investigation of Repetition in U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Curiae Briefs.” Judicature 97 (5): 228–34.Google Scholar
Collins, Paul M. Jr.,, 2015. “The Influence of Amicus Curiae Briefs on U.S. Supreme Court Opinion Content.” Law and Society Review 49 (4): 917–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbally, Sarah, Donald C. Bross, and Victor E. Flango. 2004. “Filing of Amicus Curiae Briefs in State Courts of Last Resort: 1960–2000.” Justice System Journal 25 (1): 39–56.Google Scholar
Driscoll, Amanda, and Michael J. Nelson. 2015. “Judicial Selection and the Democratization of Justice.” Journal of Law and Courts 3 (1): 115–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 1996. “Do Bills of Rights Matter? The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” American Political Science Review 90 (4): 765–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 1998. The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee. 1994. “Exploring the Participation of Organized Interests in State Court Litigation.” Political Research Quarterly 47 (2): 335–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fallon, Richard H. Jr., 2008. “The Core of an Uneasy Case for Judicial Review.” Harvard Law Review 121 (7): 1693–1736.Google Scholar
Frank, Jerome. 1930. Law and the Modern Mind. New York: Brentano’s.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M. 1967. “Legal Rules and the Process of Social Change.” Stanford Law Review 19 (4): 786–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia, Ruben J. 2008. “A Democratic Theory of Amicus Advocacy.” Florida State University Law Review 35:315–58.Google Scholar
Gardner, Amy M. 2002. “An Attempt to Intervene in the Confusion: Standing Requirements for Rule 24 Intervenors.” University of Chicago Law Review 69 (2): 681–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom. 2003. Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleason, Shane A., and Colin Provost. 2016. “Representing the States before the US Supreme Court: State Amicus Brief Participation, the Policy-Making Environment, and the Fourth Amendment.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 46 (2): 248–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Handler, Joel F. 1978. Social Movements and the Legal System: A Theory of Law Reform and Social Change. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hansford, Thomas G. 2004. “Lobbying Strategies, Venue Selection, and Organized Interest Involvement at the U.S. Supreme Court.” American Politics Research 32 (2): 170–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harlow, Carol, and Richard Rawlings. 1992. Pressure through Law. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harris, Michael J. 2000. “Amicus Curiae: Friend or Foe? The Limits of Friendship in American Jurisprudence.” Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy 5 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. 1961. The Concept of Law. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L. 1994. “Resource Inequalities and Litigation Outcomes in the Philippine Supreme Court.” Journal of Politics 56 (3): 752–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L. 1998. “Paradise Lost: Politicisation of the Philippine Supreme Court in the Post Marcos Era.” Asian Studies Review 22 (4): 459–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L., Reginald S. Sheehan, Donald R. Songer, and C. Neal Tate. 2007. High Courts Judicial Database. http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/poli/juri/highcts.htm (accessed April 16, 2015).Google Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L., and Kaitlyn L. Sill. 2007. “Experienced Advocates and Litigation Outcomes: Repeat Players in the South African Supreme Court of Appeal.” Political Research Quarterly 60 (3): 443–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heywood, Mark. 2001. “Debunking ‘Conglomo-Talk’: A Case Study of the Amicus Curiae as an Instrument for Advocacy, Investigation and Mobilisation.” Law, Democracy and Development 5 (2): 133–62.Google Scholar
Hirschl, Ran. 2002. “Beyond the American Experience: The Global Expansion of Judicial Review.” In Marbury v. Madison: Documents and Commentary, ed. Mark A. Graber, 129–53. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Hirschl, Ran. 2004. Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 2006. “What Are Institutions?” Journal of Economic Issues 40 (1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Vicki C. 2004. “Comparative Constitutional Federalism and Transnational Judicial Discourse.” International Journal of Constitutional Law 2 (1): 91–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochevar, Steven. 2013. “Amicus Curiae in Civil Law Jurisdictions.” Yale Law Journal 122 (6): 1653–69.Google Scholar
Krishnan, Jayanth K. 2001. “Public Interest Litigation in a Comparative Context.” Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal 20:19–100.Google Scholar
Krishnan, Jayanth K., and Kevin R. den Dulk. 2002. “So Help Me God: A Comparative Study of Religious Interest Group Litigation.” Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 30:233–75.Google Scholar
Krislov, Samuel. 1963. “The Amicus Curiae Brief: From Friendship to Advocacy.” Yale Law Journal 72 (4): 694–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M., ed. 2002. Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social, and Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Larson, Allison Orr, and Neal Devins. 2016. “The Amicus Machine.” Virginia Law Review 102:1901–68.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Johan P. Olsen. 1984. “The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life.” American Political Science Review 78 (3): 734–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., Ted Robert Gurr, and Keith Jaggers. 2014. “Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2013.” http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm.Google Scholar
Mela, Carl F., and Praveen K. Kopalle. 2002. “The Impact of Collinearity on Regression Analysis: The Asymmetric Effect of Negative and Positive Correlations.” Applied Econometrics 34 (6): 667–77.Google Scholar
Morton, F. L. 1987. “The Political Impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 20 (1): 31–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murrell, Peter. 1984. “An Examination of the Factors Affecting the Formation of Interest Groups in OECD Countries.” Public Choice 43 (2): 151–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Connor, Karen, and Lee Epstein. 1983. “Court Rules and Workload: A Case Study of Rules Governing Amicus Curiae Participation.” Justice System Journal 8 (1): 35–45.Google Scholar
Olson, Susan M. 1990. “Interest-Group Litigation in Federal District Court: Beyond the Political Disadvantage Theory.” Journal of Politics 52 (3): 854–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Political Handbook of the World. 2014. Washington, DC: CQ Press. http://library.cqpress.com/phw/toc.php?source=Political+Handbook+of+the+World+2014&mode=phw-govtype.Google Scholar
Pound, Roscoe. 1910. “Law in Books and Law in Action.” American Law Review 44:12–36.Google Scholar
Provost, Colin. 2011. “When to Befriend the Court? Examining State Amici Curiae Participation before the U.S. Supreme Court.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 11 (1): 4–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. 1991. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, Thomas D. Jr., 2001. “Debates over Group Litigation in Comparative Perspectives: What Can We Learn from Each Other?” Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 11 (2): 157–64.Google Scholar
Salzman, Ryan, Christopher J. Williams, and Bryan T. Calvin. 2011. “The Determinants of the Number of Amicus Briefs Filed before the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–2001.” Justice System Journal 32 (3): 293–313.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. 1974. The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy, and Political Change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and John T. Tierney. 1986. Organized Interests and American Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Schor, Miguel. 2008. “Mapping Comparative Judicial Review.” Washington University Global Legal Studies Review 7:257–87.Google Scholar
Slaughter, Ann-Marie. 1994. “A Typology of Transjudicial Communication.” University of Richmond Law Review 29 (1): 99–137.Google Scholar
Solberg, Rorie Spill, and Eric N. Waltenburg. 2006. “Why Do Interest Groups Engage the Judiciary? Policy Wishes and Structural Needs.” Social Science Quarterly 87 (3): 558–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solowiej, Lisa A., and Paul M. Collins Jr. 2009. “Counteractive Lobbying in the U.S. Supreme Court.” American Politics Research 37 (4): 670–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R., Susan W. Johnson, and Jennifer Barnes Bowie. 2013. “Do Bills of Rights Matter? An Examination of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, and the Support Structure for Rights in Canada.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 51 (1): 297–328.Google Scholar
Spaeth, Harold J. 2007. “The Original United States Supreme Court Database, 1953–2004 Terms.” Department of Political Science, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Stone-Sweet, Alec. 2000. Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass R. 1995. “Problems with Rules.” California Law Review 83 (4): 953–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supreme Court of India. 2006. The Supreme Court of India Annual Report, 2005–2006. http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/annualreport/annualreport2005-06.pdf.Google Scholar
Tate, C. Neal, and Stacia L. Haynie. 1993. “Authoritarianism and the Functions of Courts: A Time Series Analysis of the Philippine Supreme Court, 1961–1987.” Law and Society Review 27 (4): 707–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Truman, David B. 1951. The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Tushnet, Mark. 2010. “How Different Are Waldron’s and Fallon’s Core Cases For and Against Judicial Review?” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 30 (1): 49–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urribarri, Raul A. Sanchez, Susanne Schorpp, Kirk A. Randazzo, and Donald R. Songer. 2011. “Explaining Changes to Rights Litigation: Testing a Multivariate Model in a Comparative Framework.” Journal of Politics 73 (2): 394–405.Google Scholar
Vose, Clement E. 1958. “Litigation as a Form of Pressure Group Activity.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 319 (September): 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2006. “The Core of the Case against Judicial Review.” Yale Law Journal 115 (6): 1346–1406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Jack L. 1983. “The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America.” American Political Science Review 77 (2): 390–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wofford, Claire B. 2015. “Assessing the Anecdotes: Amicus Curiae, Legal Rules, and the U.S. Supreme Court.” Justice System Journal 36:274–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. 2010. Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
World Bank. 1993. World Tables. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2015. “World Development Indicators.” http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/variableSelection/selectvariables.aspx?source=world-development-indicators#c_z.Google Scholar