Governments in Courts: Judicial - Parliamentary Interactions in Australia and Canada

因此，该项目调查了政治环境中司法-立法的相互作用，这些相互作用可能会诱发法院的复杂或战略行为，并在此过程中解决了发达民主国家司法独立和法治的复杂问题。战略说明用于解释法院何时推迟或不推迟政府的决定以及政府如何对这些决定作出反应。该项目主要以美国的两个威斯敏斯特议会制度为基础，测试三权分立游戏，这两个议会制度缺乏阻碍针对美国法院的政治行动的多重否决权。澳大利亚和加拿大的否决点较少，也意味着法院对政府的政策偏好有更全面的了解。该项目通过收集联邦上诉法院和高等法院做出的大约5500项裁决的个案数据，实证地确定了澳大利亚和加拿大25-30年间司法-议会互动的动态，在这些法院中，国家政府是行政法诉讼的直接当事方。同样重要的是，该项目收集了议会对这些决定的反应的档案数据。该项目的纵向维度鼓励了新制度主义的观点，而其比较维度逃脱了单一系统案例研究的限制；定量方法允许检验用定性数据无法检验的假设。此外，该项目将提供未来学术研究所需的专业培训，并将用于为PI教授的课程的本科生准备基于计算机的“研究模块”。在这些国家的主要政治科学会议上发表后，项目发现和结果将提交给澳大利亚、加拿大和美国的同行评议期刊。基于该项目的一本书长度的手稿将提交给大学出版社出版。

This project therefore investigates judicial-legislative interactions in political settings that are likely to induce sophisticated or strategic behavior by the courts, and in doing so addresses complex issues of judicial independence and the rule of law in developed democracies. A strategic account is used to explain when courts defer or not to governments and how governments react to these decisions. The project tests the separation of powers game modeled largely on the basis of the American case in two Westminster parliamentary systems that lack the multiple veto points that hinder political action against American courts. Fewer veto points in Australia and Canada also mean the courts have more complete information about government policy preferences. The project empirically determines the dynamics of judicial-parliamentary interactions over 25-30 year periods in Australia and Canada, through the collection of case-level data for roughly 5500 decisions made by the federal courts of appeals and high courts where the national governments are direct parties in administrative law litigation. Equally important, the project collects archival data on parliamentary reactions to these decisions. The project's longitudinal dimension encourages a neo-institutionalist perspective, while its comparative dimension escapes the limits of case studies of single systems; the quantitative approach permits tests of hypotheses not possible with qualitative data. In addition, the project will provide professional training required for future academic research, and will be used to prepare computer-based "research modules" for undergraduate students for a course taught by the PI. Project findings and results will be submitted to Australian, Canadian, and American peer-reviewed journals after presentation at major political science conferences in these countries. A book-length manuscript based on the project will be submitted to a university press for publication.