The Role of Courts in the Protection and Expansion of Civil and Political Rights : A Pilot Study

PI和Co-PI：唐纳德·桑格和李·沃克南卡罗来纳大学题目：法院在保护和扩大公民权利和政治权利中的作用：一项试点研究项目摘要本研究项目将研究上诉法院在扩大和保护个人权利中的作用的程度、性质和原因。 调查人员将分析自治和民主的法律的结构的发展，从公民社会获得他们的权力寻求议程？对个人权利的要求。对这些个人权利的要求与充分民主的发展相一致。研究模型的支持结构的广泛性的相对效果，与法官的意识形态的效果，和直接和有条件的一系列制度变量对多个措施与民主权利的扩展。 本研究探讨了这些变量与三个因变量的关系：最高上诉法院备审案件中的权利案件比例，对权利的支持程度，以及我们对司法结果的新衡量标准。用于分析的数据来自比较高等法院数据库（加拿大）中一个普通法国家每年100项裁决的随机抽样，以及四个大陆法系国家（哥斯达黎加、尼加拉瓜、萨尔瓦多和委内瑞拉）最高上诉法院的新数据。选定审查的案件在关键体制因素方面各不相同，这些因素被假定为促进和限制对权利的司法支持。研究人员将使用横截面时间序列方法研究1980年至2005年的决策。 除了统计分析之外，还将在五个国家中的每一个国家开展深入的实地工作，以进一步探讨法官和司法政治中的其他关键行为者对支持或阻碍扩大保护公民权利的司法努力的条件的看法。进行的研究将广泛的兴趣，以广泛的学者谁研究法律和法院在政治学，法律和社会学。这项研究是为数不多的几个尝试对司法结果进行系统的跨国实证分析的项目之一，该项目使用可比数据和一套共同的概念和措施来评估大量法院。此外，这项研究的创新之处在于，它对大陆法系和英美法系国家的司法判决进行了广泛的分析。除了研究的智力价值之外，该项目还将有助于研究生教育和职业社会化。通过在相当长的一段时间内提供另外四个国家的可比数据，这项研究创造了一个丰富的资源，将使未来的研究在英美法系和大陆法系国家的比较司法行为。此外，这项研究扩大了我们对司法机构在拉丁美洲民主化进程和整个民主化社会中的作用的理解。

PI and Co-PI: Donald Songer and Lee WalkerUniversity of South CarolinaTitle: TheRole of Courts in the Protection and Expansion of Civil and Political Rights : A Pilot Study0820708Project AbstractThis research project will examine the extent, nature, and causes of the role of appellate courts in the expansion and protection of individual rights. The investigators will analyze the development of autonomous and democratic legal structures, which derive their power-seeking agendas from civil society?s demands for individual rights. The demand for these individual rights corresponds with the development of full democracy. The research models the relative effect of the extensiveness of support structures, versus the effect of judge ideology, and direct and conditional effects of the series of institutional variables on multiple measures associated with the expansion of democratic rights. The study explores the relationships of these variables to three dependent variables: the proportion of rights cases on the docket of the top appellate court, the extent of support for rights, and our new measure of judicial outcomes. The data for analysis is obtained from random samples of 100 decisions per year obtained from one common law country in the Comparative High Courts Database (Canada) and new data coded from the top appellate courts of four civil law countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Venezuela). Cases selected for examination vary in key institutional factors hypothesized to facilitate and constrain judicial support for rights. The investigators will examine decisions from 1980 to 2005 using a cross-sectional time series approach. The statistical analyses will be supplemented by intensive field work in each of the five nations to further probe the perceptions of the justices and other key actors in judicial politics on the conditions that support or retard judicial efforts to expand the protection of citizen rights. The research conducted will be of broad interest to a wide range of scholars who study law and courts in political science, law, and sociology. The research is one of a very few projects to attempt a systematic, cross-national empirical analysis of judicial outcomes that uses comparable data and a common set of concepts and measures to assess a large number of courts. Moreover, the research is innovative in that it provides a broad analysis of judicial decisions from both civil law and common law countries. Beyond the intellectual merits of the research, this project will contribute to graduate education and professional socialization. By providing comparable data on four additional countries over a substantial period of time, the study creates a rich resource that will enable future research on comparative judicial behavior in both common law and civil law countries. Additionally, the research broadens our understanding of the role judiciary in the democratization process in Latin America and democratizing societies in general.