Determinants of Constitutionally Safeguarded Judicial Review – Insights Based on a New Indicator

Abstract

Many observers have noted that constitutional review spread rather fast after World War II. It has also been noted that the continental (or Austrian) model of constitutional review was spreading relatively faster than the U.S. American one. Various conjectures regarding possible causes for the spread of constitutional review have been discussed.

This paper makes constitutional review comparable across countries by drawing on four variables and a composite indicator of constitutional review. It thus allows us to empirically test the various hypotheses regarding the diffusion of constitutional review. The variables have been coded on an annual basis for 100 countries over the period from 1950 until 2005. The data are used as dependent variables. We are, hence, interested in identifying the determinants of both the original choice of constitutional review and its change over time. This implies that both very stable variables such as geography and history are analyzed as well as more contemporaneous ones as constitutional choices made simultaneously with the choice of constitutional review.

This paper is part of a larger project that makes many more aspects of judicial independence comparable across time and space. This not only allows more precise statements regarding determinants of judicial independence but also regarding its (economic) effects.

Keywords: Constitutional Review, Judicial Independence, Constitutional Choice, Constitutional Change

JEL Classification: K10, N40