Judiciary and judicial behaviour

These are momentous times for the comparative analysis of judicial behaviour. Once the sole province of United States scholars - and mostly political scientists at that - researchers throughout the world are drawing on history, economics, law, and psychology to illuminate how and why judges make the choices they do. Our goal is to supply an introduction to this exciting field with an eye toward encouraging even more social scientists to contribute with studies of their own. To that end, the second section provides a foreword to the comparative analysis of judicial behaviour, emphasizing the goals and the range of questions that come under the field’s reach. The third section surveys the major approaches to which scholars turn to develop research questions and generate possible answers. The fourth section delves into the range of data sources and methods used to assess the possible answers and evaluate findings. Throughout, we flag opportunities for future research.