Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:29:38.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Global Measure of Judicial Independence, 1948–2012

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Drew A. Linzer
Affiliation:
Emory University
Jeffrey K. Staton
Affiliation:
Emory University

Abstract

We present a new cross-national measure of de facto judicial independence, which is available for 200 countries from 1948 to 2012. To do so, we introduce a statistical measurement model for uncovering latent concepts commonly encountered in time-series, cross-sectional analyses in comparative politics and international relations. Our approach addresses unique challenges that arise in these data: temporal dependence in the observed and unobserved variables, conceptual boundedness in the latent quantity, and substantial missing data and measurement error in the observable indicators. The resulting measures match a common conceptual definition of independence with greater reliability than existing alternatives. The model is extensible to many concepts in comparative politics and international relations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2015 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.)

References

Bafumi, Joseph, and Herron, Michael C.. 2010. “Leapfrog Representation and Extremism: A Study of American Voters and Their Members in Congress.American Political Science Review 104 (3): 519–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Michael. 2001. “Ideal Point Estimation with a Small Number of Votes: A Random-Effects Approach.Political Analysis 9 (3): 192–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, Stephen P., and Andrew Gelman. 1998. “General Methods for Monitoring Convergence of Iterative Simulations.Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 7 (4): 434–55.Google Scholar
Brown, Nathan J. 2002. Constitutions in a Nonconstitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and the Prospects for Accountable Government. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, Alastair Smith, Siverson, Randolph M., and James Morrow. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burbank, Steven B., and Barry Friedman. 2002. “Reconsidering Judicial Independence.” In Judicial Independence at the Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Approach, ed. Burbank, Steven B. and Barry Friedman, 9–44. New York: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Charles M. 2002. “Judicial Independence: How Can You Tell It When You See it? And, Who Cares?” In Judicial Independence at the Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Approach, ed. Burbank, Steven B. and Barry Friedman, 134–47. New York: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carothers, Thomas. 2006. Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: In Search of Knowledge. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Carrubba, Clifford J. 2009. “A Model of the Endogenous Development of Judicial Institutions in Federal and International Systems.Journal of Politics 71 (1): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrubba, Clifford J., Matthew Gabel, and Charles Hankla. 2008. “Judicial Behavior under Political Constraints: Evidence from the European Court of Justice.American Political Science Review 102 (4): 435–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrubba, Clifford J., Matthew Gabel, Gretchen Helmke, Martin, Andrew D., and Staton, Jeffrey K.. 2015. “The Comparative Law Project.” Working paper, Emory University.Google Scholar
Carrubba, Clifford J., and Christopher Zorn. 2010. “Executive Discretion, Judicial Decision Making, and Separation of Powers in the United States.Journal of Politics 72 (3): 812–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chávez, Rebecca Bill, Ferejohn, John A., and Weingast, Barry R.. 2011. “A Theory of the Politically Independent Judiciary: A Comparative Study of the United States and Argentina.” In Courts in Latin America, ed. Gretchen Helmke and Julio Ríos-Figueroa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chernykh, Svitlana. 2014. “When Do Political Parties Protest Election Results?Comparative Political Studies 47 (10): 1359–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cingranelli, David L., and Richards, David L.. 2010. “The Cingranelli Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Database Coding Manual.” http://ciri.binghamton.edu/documentation.asp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clague, Christopher, Philip Keefer, Stephen Knack, and Mancur Olson. 1999. “Contract-Intensive Money: Contract Enforcement, Property Rights, and Economic Performance.Journal of Economic Growth 4 (2): 185–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Tom S. 2010. The Limits of Judicial Independence. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clinton, Joshua D., Simon Jackman, and Doug Rivers. 2004a. “‘The Most Liberal Senator’? Analyzing and Interpreting Congressional Roll Calls.Political Science and Politics 37 (4): 805–11.Google Scholar
Clinton, Joshua D. 2004b. “The Statistical Analysis of Roll Call Data.American Political Science Review 98 (2): 355–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conrad, Courtenay R., and Emily Hencken Ritter. 2013. “Tenure, Treaties, and Torture: The Conflicting Domestic Effects of International Law.Journal of Politics 75 (2): 397–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couso, Javier, and Lisa Hilbink. 2011. “From Quietism to Incipient Activism: The Ideological and Institutional Roots of Rights Adjudication in Chile.” In Courts in Latin America, ed. Gretchen Helmke and Julio Ríos-Figueroa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cowles, Mary Kathryn, and Carlin, Bradley P.. 1996. “Markov Chain Monte Carlo Convergence Diagnostics: A Comparative Review.Journal of the American Statistical Association 91 (434): 883–904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, S. McKay. 2010. “BUGS Code for Item Response Theory.” Journal of Statistical Software 36 (August).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epperly, Brad. 2013. “The Provision of Insurance? Judicial Independence and the Post-tenure Fate of Leaders.Journal of Law and Courts 1 (2): 247–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Jack Knight. 1998. The Choices Justices Make. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Escriba i Folch, Abel, and Joseph Wright. 2012. “Human Rights Prosecutions and Autocratic Survival.” Paper prepared for the American Political Science Association meetings, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Feld, Lars P., and Stefan Voigt. 2003. “Economic Growth and Judicial Independence: Cross-Country Evidence Using a New Set of Indicators.European Journal of Political Economy 19 (3): 497–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferejohn, John. 1998. “Independent Judges, Dependent Judiciary: Explaining Judicial Independence.Southern California Law Review 72:353–84.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, Carlin, John B., Stern, Hal S., and Rubin, Donald B.. 2004. Bayesian Data Analysis. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Rubin, Donald B.. 1992. “Inference from Iterative Simulation Using Multiple Sequences.Statistical Science 7 (4): 457–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibler, D. M., and K. A. Randazzo. 2011. “Testing the Effects of Independent Judiciaries on the Likelihood of Democratic Backsliding.American Journal of Political Science 55 (3): 696–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom. 2003. Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom. 2009. “Constitutional Afterlife: The Continuing Impact of Thailand’s Postpolitical Constitution.International Journal of Constitutional Law 7 (1): 83–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guillen Lopez, E. 2008. “Judicial Review in Spain: The Constitutional Court.Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 41:529–62.Google Scholar
Gwartney, James, and Robert Lawson. 2007. Economic Freedom of the World: 2007 Annual Report. New York: Fraser Institute.Google Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L., Sheehan, Reginald S., Songer, Donald R., and C. Neal Tate. 2007. “National High Courts Database.” http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/poli/juri/highcts.htm.Google Scholar
Hayo, Bernd, and Stefan Voigt. 2007. “Explaining de Facto Judicial Independence.International Review of Law and Economics 27 (3): 269–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helmke, Gretchen. 2005. Courts under Constraints. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hilbink, Lisa. 2007. Judges beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honaker, James, and Gary King. 2010. “What to Do about Missing Values in Time Series Cross-Section Data.American Journal of Political Science 54 (3): 561–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, Robert M., and Carey, Henry F.. 2004. “Is an Independent Judiciary Necessary for Democracy?Judicature 87 (6): 284–90.Google Scholar
Huneeus, Alexandra. 2010. “Judging from a Guilty Conscience: The Chilean Judiciary’s Human Rights Turn.Law and Social Inquiry 35 (1): 99–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, Simon. 2000. “Estimation and Inference Are Missing Data Problems: Unifying Social Science Statistics via Bayesian Simulation.Political Analysis 8 (4): 307–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jessee, Stephen A. 2009. “Spatial Voting in the 2004 Presidential Election.American Political Science Review 103 (1): 59–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Jesse C., Mark Souva, and Smith, Dale L.. 2013. “Market-Protecting Institutions and the World Trade Organization’s Ability to Promote Trade.International Studies Quarterly 57 (2): 410–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, Linda Camp. 2012. Political Repression: Courts and the Law. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornhauser, Lewis A. 2002. “Is Judicial Independence a Useful Concept?” In Judicial Independence at the Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Approach, ed. Burbank, Steven B. and Barry Friedman, 45–55. New York: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, Rafael, Florencio López de Silanes, Cristian Pop-Eleches, and Andrei Shleifer. 2004. “Judicial Checks and Balances.Journal of Political Economy 112 (2): 445–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larkins, Christopher M. 1996. “Judicial Independence and Democratization: A Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis.American Journal of Comparative Law 44 (4): 605–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Monty, and Keith Jaggers. 2010. “Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2004.” Codebook. http://www.nsd.uib.no/macrodataguide/set.html?id=32&sub=1.Google Scholar
Martin, Andrew, and Kevin Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.Political Analysis 10:405–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melton, James, and Tom Ginsburg. 2014. “Does de Jure Judicial Independence Really Matter? A Reevaluation of Explanations of Judicial Independence.Journal of Law and Courts 2 (2): 187–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nardulli, Peter F., Buddy Peyton, and Joseph Bajjalieh. 2013. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Rule of Law Constructs, 1850–2010.Journal of Law and Courts 1 (1): 139–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, Douglass, and Barry Weingast. 1989. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in 17th Century England.Journal of Economic History 49 (4): 803–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pemstein, Daniel, Meserve, Stephen A., and James Melton. 2010. “Democratic Compromise: A Latent Variable Analysis of Ten Measures of Regime Type.Political Analysis 18:426–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plummer, Martyn. 2012.JAGS: Just Another Gibbs Sampler. http://mcmc-jags.sourceforge.net.Google Scholar
PRS Group. 2013. “International Country Risk Guide.” http://www.prsgroup.com/icrg.aspx.Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2013. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.R-project.org.Google Scholar
Ríos-Figueroa, Julio. 2007. “Fragmentation of Power and the Emergence of an Effective Judiciary in Mexico, 1994–2002.Latin American Politics and Society 49:31–57.Google Scholar
Ríos-Figueroa, Julio, and Staton, Jeffrey K.. 2014. “An Evaluation of Cross-National Measures of Judicial Independence.Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 30 (1): 104–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosas, Guillermo. 2009. “Dynamic Latent Trait Models: An Application to Latin American Banking Crises.Electoral Studies 28 (3): 375–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenn, Keith S. 1987. “The Protection of Judicial Independence in Latin America.University of Miami Inter-American Law Review 19:3–35.Google Scholar
Scribner, Druscilla. 2011. “Courts, Power, and Rights in Argentina and Chile.” In Courts in Latin America, ed. Gretchen Helmke and Julio Ríos-Figueroa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shor, Boris, and Nolan McCarty. 2011. “The Ideological Mapping of American Legislatures.American Political Science Review 105 (3): 530–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staton, Jeffrey K. 2006. “Constitutional Review and the Selective Promotion of Case Results.American Journal of Political Science 50 (1): 98–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staton, Jeffrey K., Christopher Reenock, and Marius Radean. 2013. “Judicial Institutions and Democratic Survival.Journal of Politics 75 (2): 491–505.Google Scholar
Su, Yu-Sung, and Masanao Yajima. 2012.R2jags: A Package for Running jags from R. R package version 0.03-08. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=R2jags.Google Scholar
Taylor, Matthew M. 2009. “A Model of Judicial Independence with Illustration from Chavez’s Venezuela.” Paper presented at the American Political Science Association annual meeting, Toronto.Google Scholar
Treier, Shawn, and Simon Jackman. 2008. “Democracy as a Latent Variable.American Journal of Political Science 52 (1): 201–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanberg, Georg. 2005. The Politics of Constitutional Review in Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Voeten, E. 2007. “The Politics of International Judicial Appointments: Evidence from the European Court of Human Rights.International Organization 61:669–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2002. “Is the Rule of Law an Essentially Contested Concept (in Florida)?Law and Philosophy 21 (2): 137–64.Google Scholar
Whittington, Keith E. 2005. “‘Interpose Your Friendly Hand’: Political Supports for the Exercise of Judicial Review by the United States Supreme Court.American Political Science Review 99 (4): 583–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar