Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2011
Journal Title
Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law
ISSN
0743-6963
Abstract
This paper explains how specialized constitutional courts navigate between the demands of two different external audiences, the political and the judicial. The political audience expects constitutional court judges to respond to political pressures and to vote ideologically. Such voting, however, might undermine the constitutional court’s ability to influence the judicial audience, which necessarily views cases as apolitical in character. We argue that the need to achieve supremacy over other higher courts constrains the ability of constitutional judges to pursue ideological goals. We examine patterns of consensus and fragmentation to demonstrate our proposition. We find empirical evidence that the existence of conflict between supreme and constitutional courts is positively related to the stability of court majorities.
First Page
539
Volume Number
28
Publisher
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
Recommended Citation
Nuno Garoupa & Tom Ginsburg,
Building Reputation in Constitutional Courts: Political and Judicial Audiences,
28
Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L.
539
(2011).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/478