Judicial Checks and Balances
Rafael La Porta,
Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes (),
Cristian Pop-Eleches and
Andrei Shleifer
Journal of Political Economy, 2004, vol. 112, issue 2, 445-470
Abstract:
In the Anglo-American constitutional tradition, judicial checks and balances are often seen as crucial guarantees of freedom. Hayek distinguishes two ways in which the judiciary provides such checks and balances: judicial independence and constitutional review. We create a new database of constitutional rules in 71 countries that reflect these provisions. We find strong support for the proposition that both judicial independence and constitutional review are associated with greater freedom. Consistent with theory, judicial independence accounts for some of the positive effect of common-law legal origin on measures of economic freedom. The results point to significant benefits of the Anglo-American system of government for freedom.
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (254)
Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/381480 main text (application/pdf)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
Related works:
Working Paper: Judicial Checks and Balances (2004) 
Working Paper: Judicial Checks and Balances (2003) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:112:y:2004:i:2:p:445-470
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Journal of Political Economy from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().