American ideas abroad: Comparative implications of US Supreme Court decision-making models

• Theunis Roux ^[1]
  1. [1] University of New South Wales
• Localización: International journal of constitutional law, ISSN 1474-2640, Vol. 13, Nº. 1, 2015, págs. 90-118
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The purpose of this article is to use the conceptual logic underpinning the three main models of US Supreme Court decision-making to construct a comparative typology of constitutional courts, and then to show how this typology may be used for further research. To this end, the article explains how the determinants of decision-making associated with the three models need to be reconceptualized for comparative purposes. The proposed approach generates four ideal-typical courts, each with its own characteristic decision-making mode. The shift from models to modes means that the typology cannot be used to predict circumstances in which the American models are likely to have explanatory power outside the US. But the search for those circumstances was in any event quixotic, given the particularity of the American experience. What the typology offers instead is a way of systematizing and building on the insights emerging from the comparative judicial politics literature.