Digital Commons Network^™

Does De Jure Independence Really Matter?: A Reevaluation Of Explanations For Judicial Independence, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton

Tom Ginsburg

The relationship between de jure and de facto judicial independence is much debated in the literature on judicial politics. Some studies find no relationship between the formal rules governing the structure of the judiciary and de facto judicial independence, while others find a tight correlation. This article sets out to reassess the relationship between de jure and de facto judicial independence using a new theory and an expanded data set. De jure institutional protections, we argue, do not work in isolation but work conjunctively, so that particular combinations of protections are more likely to be effective than others. We find …