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Political Research Quarterly
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Attitudinal Dimensions of Supreme Court Decision Making in Canada: The Lamer Court, 1991-1995

C. L. Ostberg

UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC

Matthew E. Wetstein

SAN JOAQUIN DELTA COLLEGE

Craig R. Ducat

NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

This article assesses whether the same attitudinal dimension that dominates judicial decision-making in the United States-liberalism/conservatism-is also prominent in the Canadian context. Specifically, the study examines the voting behavior of Canadian Supreme Court Justices in non-unanimous post-Charter cases decided during the first five terms of the Lamer Court (1991-95). After employing factor analysis, which disclosed three principal dimensions underlying the voting behavior of the justices, we closely examined the cases scoring most positively and most negatively on each of the factors. The principal dimensions underlying the Charter rulings suggest three prominent attitudinal conflicts dominate this Court period: communitarianism versus libertarianism, fair trial and criminal due process disputes, and judicial activism versus judicial self-restraint. These dimensions corroborate the findings of studies that have tracked the development of the Canadian Court in postCharter years.

Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1, 235-256 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/106591290205500110
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Home page
 Comparative Political StudiesHome page
M. E. Wetstein, C.L. Ostberg, D. R. Songer, and S. W. Johnson
Ideological Consistency and Attitudinal Conf lict: A Comparative Analysis of the U.S. and Canadian Supreme Courts
Comparative Political Studies, June 1, 2009; 42(6): 763 - 792.
[Abstract] [PDF]