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Addressing Federal Conflicts: An Empirical Analysis of the Brazilian Supreme Court, 1988–2010

Author

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  • Arlota Carolina

    (School of Law, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA)

  • Garoupa Nuno

    (College of Law, University of Illinois at Urbana, Urbana, IL, USA)

Abstract

We test the extent to which political variables can explain judicial behavior in the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) when dealing with conflicts between the federal government (namely, the union) and the states. One view argues that we should expect some alignment between the political preferences of the justices and the success of the union primarily due to the appointment mechanism. The opposite view suggests that there should be no systematic alignment between the political preferences of the justices and the success of the union as a consequence of political insulation. We built an original dataset encompassing different types of constitutional actions judged between 1988 and 2010 by the STF. Our research focuses fundamentally on the alignment between revealed judicial preferences when adjudicating cases and presidential appointments in Brazil. We find some evidence that judicial preferences do matter, but the patterns of politicization are weaker than in other similar courts. We also discuss the implications of our findings for comparative judicial politics; in particular, we do not observe strong partisanship.

Suggested Citation

  • Arlota Carolina & Garoupa Nuno, 2014. "Addressing Federal Conflicts: An Empirical Analysis of the Brazilian Supreme Court, 1988–2010," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 137-168, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:rlecon:v:10:y:2014:i:2:p:32:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/rle-2013-0037
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sofia Amaral-Garcia & Nuno Garoupa & Veronica Grembi, 2009. "Judicial Independence and Party Politics in Constitutional Courts: The Case of Portugal," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/301515, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Jenna Bednar, 2004. "Judicial Predictability and Federal Stability," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 16(4), pages 423-446, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Barros, Henrique M., 2021. "Neither at the cutting edge nor in a patent-friendly environment: Appropriating the returns from innovation in a less developed economy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    2. Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw & Voigt, Stefan, 2024. "Assessing the Impact of Federalism on Constitutional Compliance," ILE Working Paper Series 79, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.

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