Policy Making in an Independent Judiciary: The Norwegian Supreme Court [Paperback]

The authors show how an understanding of judicial behaviour developed and most fully tested in the American judicial system is transportable to the courts of other countries.How do the justices of a nations highest court arrive at their decisions? In the context of the US Supreme Court, the answer to this question is well established: justices seek to enshrine policy preferences in their decisions, but they do so in a manner consistent with the law and in recognition that they are members of an institution with defined expectations and constraints. In other words, a justices behaviour is a function of motives, means, and opportunities. Using Norway as a case study, this book shows that these forces are not peculiar to the decisional behaviour of American justices. Employing a modified attitudinal model, Grendstad, Shaffer and Waltenburg establish that the preferences of Norways justices are related to their decisions. Consequently, the authors show how an understanding of judicial behaviour developed and most fully tested in the American judicial system is transportable to the courts of other countries.ContentsList of Figures and Tables ixAcknowledgements xiiiPreface xvChapter One  Introduction: Politics and the Norwegian Supreme Court 1Chapter Two  Institutional Structure and Process 31Chapter Three  The Decisional Processes of the Norwegian Supreme Court 61Chapter Four  Policy Making by Appointment: The Composition of theNorwegian Supreme Court 19452009 75Chapter Five  Public Economic Interests vs. Private Economic Rights 97Chapter Six  The Presence and Effect of Women on the Court: Family andCriminal Law 121Chapter Seven  Government Friendliness of Supreme Court Justices 143Chapter Eight  The Super Legislators: Supreme Court Justices as theGuardians of the Constitution 163Chapter Nine  Conclusion: Reflections on the Attitudinal Model 193Appendices 207Index 229Eric N Waltenburg is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. Hló3