In Search of Canadian Political Culture - UBC Press

UBC Press
Attitudinal Decision Making in
the Supreme Court of Canada
C.L. Ostberg and Matthew E. Wetstein
In my estimation, this is the most comprehensive
analysis of the individual voting patterns of Supreme
Court justices to date. No other work… provides as
nuanced an analysis of the ideological variances of the
justices across a range of policy issues. Ostberg and
Wetstein have clearly demonstrated that value preferences
and ideological considerations structure the
voting records of justices… Their work will bolster the
call for greater public scrutiny of judicial appointments
to the Supreme Court of Canada.
– James B. Kelly, author of Governing with the Charter:
Legislative and Judicial Activism and Framers’ Intent
This book provides a comprehensive exploration
of ideological patterns of judicial behaviour in the
Supreme Court of Canada. Relying on an expansive
database of Canadian Supreme Court rulings between
1984 and 2003, the authors present the most
systematic discussion of the attitudinal model of
decision making ever conducted outside the setting
of the US Supreme Court. They test the assumption,
accepted by many political scientists, that conflict in
the courts is due in large part to ideological divisions
among the members. The groundbreaking discussion
of the viability of the attitudinal model as a unifying
theory of judicial behaviour in high courts around the
world will be essential reading for a wide range of legal
scholars and court watchers.
Contents
Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
1 Models of Judicial Behaviour and the Canadian Supreme
Court
2 The Viability of the Attitudinal Model in the Canadian Context
3 Measuring Judicial Ideology
4 Attitudinal Conflict in Criminal Cases
5 Attitudinal Conflict in Civil Rights and Liberties Cases
6 Attitudinal Conflict in Economic Cases
7 Attitudinal Consistency in the Post-Charter Supreme Court
8 The Political and Social Implications of Post-Charter Judicial
Behaviour
Notes
References
Index
LAW AND SOCIETY SERIES
C.L. Ostberg is a professor of political science
and director of the pre-law program at the
University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Matthew E. Wetstein is a professor of political
science at Delta College in Stockton, California.
2007, 288 Pages, 6 x 9”
0-7748-1311-3 / 978-0-7748-1311-2
cloth $85.00
0-7748-1312-1 / 978-0-7748-1312-9
paper $32.95 (publishing July 2008)
www.ubcpress.ca / 1 877 864 8477 13