Judicial Independence: Evidence from the Philippine Supreme Court (1970–2003)

Desierto, Desiree

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-15551-7_3

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Empirical studies have drawn attention to the sociobiographic backgrounds of judges (Tate 1970;Gatmaytan and Magno 2011); tested for the impact of regime variables on court performance (Tate andHaynie 1993, 1994); and provided measures of ideological points for justices (Pellegrina, Escresa, and Garoupa 2014). Attitudinal and principal-agent-based models have suggested support for alignment of the performance between individual justices and the interests of the presidents who appointed them Garoupa 2012, 2013;Desierto 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Justices and Political Loyalties: An Empirical Investigation of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1987–2020

Dressel¹,

Inoue²,

Bonoan³

2023

Law Soc. Inq.

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The Philippine Supreme Court is considered one of Asia’s most activist courts. During the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte (2016–22), however, concerns grew about its independence. This article investigates determinants of the Court’s behavior since the country’s return to democracy in 1987, with particular attention to “loyalty effects”—the likelihood that justices will vote for the government more often when the president who appointed them is in office. Drawing on a data set of seventy major political cases and sociobiographic profiles of the eighty-six justices who voted in them, we test for variables, including freshman effects and strategic defection toward the end of a presidential term. We find that early years on the bench are closely associated with a vote for the appointer’s administration, and the end of a presidential term is weakly associated with a vote against. Under the Duterte administration, voting preferences have been more aligned with the appointer, and factional alliances of justices appointed by different presidential administrations mirror political alignments. These results have practical implications for the fragile constitutional democracy in the Philippines and contribute to understanding of loyalty dynamics in less institutionalized judicial settings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Justices and Political Loyalties: An Empirical Investigation of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1987–2020

Dressel¹,

Inoue²,

Bonoan³

2023

Law Soc. Inq.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Empirical studies of the Supreme Court of the Philippines have drawn attention to the socio-biographical background of judges (Gatmaytan and Magno, 2011; Tate, 1970); tested for the impact on their decisions of regime variables (Tate and Haynie, 1993) and resource inequalities in litigation (Haynie, 1995); and provided measures of ideal judicial points (Pellegrina et al, 2014). Other investigations have considered attitudinal and principal–agent-based models as determinants of Philippine Supreme Court decisions (Desierto, 2015; Escresa and Garoupa, 2012, 2013). At this point, however, no analysis has explicitly considered informal factors in judicial decision-making.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal networks and judicial decisions: Insights from the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1986–2015

Dressel

Inoue

2018

International Political Science Review

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To what extent do informal networks shape the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Philippines? Though often raised in the Philippines, this question has never been studied empirically. To answer it, we constructed a set of social network variables to assess how informal ties, based on university connections and work affiliations, may have influenced the court's decisions between 1986 and 2015 in 47 politically high-profile cases. Providing statistically significant evidence for the effects of political influence (presidential appointments) and hierarchical pressure (the vote of the Chief Justice) on related networks, our analysis suggests a continuing tension on the Supreme Court bench between professionalism and informality. Because the findings advance both theoretical and empirical understanding of larger issues at the intersection of courts and society throughout the region, we recommend more attention to the role of judicial networks, external to the courts as well as within them.

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Courts and Politics in Southeast Asia

Dressel

2024

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Courts around the globe have become central players in governance, those in Southeast Asia have been no exception. This Element analyses the historical foundations, patterns, and drivers of judicialization of politics by mapping critical junctures that have shaped the emergence of modern courts in the region and providing a basic typology of courts and politics that extends the analysis to the contemporary situation. It also offers a new relational theory that helps explain the dynamics of judicial recruitment, decision-making, court performance-and ultimately perceptions of judicial legitimacy. In a region where power is often concentrated among oligarchs and clientelist political dynamics persist, it posits that courts are best comprehended as institutional hybrids. These hybrids seamlessly blend formal and informal practices, with profound implications for how Southeast Asian courts are molding both the rule of law and political governance.

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Judicial Independence: Evidence from the Philippine Supreme Court (1970–2003)

Cited by 4 publications

References 22 publications

Justices and Political Loyalties: An Empirical Investigation of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1987–2020

Justices and Political Loyalties: An Empirical Investigation of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1987–2020

Informal networks and judicial decisions: Insights from the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1986–2015

Courts and Politics in Southeast Asia

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