Judicial Impartiality and Independence in Divided Societies: An Empirical Analysis of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

©2016 Law and Society Association The role of constitutional courts in deeply divided societies is complicated by the danger that the salient societal cleavages may influence judicial decision-making and, consequently, undermine judicial impartiality and independence. With reference to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article investigates the influence of ethno-national affiliation on judicial behaviour and the extent to which variation in judicial tenure amplifies or dampens that influence. Based on a statistical analysis of an original dataset of the Court's decisions, we find that the judges do in fact divide predictably along ethno-national lines, at least in certain types of cases, and that these divisions cannot be reduced to a residual loyalty to their appointing political parties. Contrary to some theoretical expectations, however, we find that long-term tenure does little to dampen the influence of ethno-national affiliation on judicial behaviour. Moreover, our findings suggest that this influence may actually increase as a judge acclimates to the dynamics of a divided court. We conclude by considering how alternative arrangements for the selection and tenure of judges might help to ameliorate this problem.postprin

Creative law : selected papers from The University of British Columbia's 16th annual interdisciplinary legal studies graduate students' conference

The graduate law students’ society of the University of British Columbia hosted, for the sixteenth year, a legal studies graduate student conference held on May 13 and 14, 2011. The conference is well known, largely as a result of its interdisciplinary approach, for creating a unique forum for the presentation of new and challenging work by postgraduate students from all over the world. In 2011, it was held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. The conference theme was ‘Creative Law’ and its mandate was to promote reflection on “creativity and the law” in all the possible senses of that phrase: law and its interaction with the arts; innovation within the law and innovative uses of law; the development of new law; legal postmodernism; new and distinctive ways of interpreting law; and the application, adoption or appropriation of law in or by other disciplines, to name but a few. This volume brings together some of the papers that were most appreciated at the conference, selected by vote by participants. It is the first of what is intended to be an annual 'proceedings of the conference' ebook, recording interesting papers for posterity and cataloging the future of the event.Law, Faculty ofUnreviewedGraduat