Empirical assessments of judicial decisions are nothing new and includes well-plowed terrain. While assessing the influences on a judge’s decision remains an inherently difficult research task, the degree of difficulty increases, in general, for constitutional cases. Moreover, when one considers the constitutional context from a comparative perspective, the difficulties mount exponentially. In Quantitative Analysis of Judicial Voting, Benjamin Alarie (Toronto) and Andrew James Green (Toronto) summarize the relevant literature, identify important challenges, and make a plea for more comparative work in this area. An excerpted abstract (below) summarizes what this paper sets out to accomplish.
