Law, Ideology, and Collegiality: Judicial Behaviour in the Supreme Court of Canada

The authors use confidential interviews with Supreme Court justices, analysis of their rulings from 1970 to 2005, and measures that tap their perceived ideological tendences to provide a critical examination of the ideological roots of judicial decision making, uncovering the complexity of contemporary judicial behaviour. Examining judicial behaviour through the lens of three different research strategies grounded in qualitative and quantitative methodologies, Law, Ideology, and Collegiality presents compelling evidence that political ideology is a key factor in decision making and a prominent source of conflict in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Donald R. Songer, professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, is the author of The Transformation of the Supreme Court of Canada: An Empirical Examination and Continuity and Change on the United States Courts of Appeals. Susan W. Johnson is assistant professor of political science, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. C.L. Ostberg is professor of political science, director of the Legal Scholars Program, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, and coauthor of Attitudinal Decision Making in the Supreme Court of Canada. Matthew E. Wetstein is dean of Planning, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness, San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, California, and co-author of Attitudinal Decision Making in the Supreme Court of Canada.