Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T23:23:18.291Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dissent, Legitimacy, and Public Support for Court Decisions: Evidence from a Survey-Based Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Henrik Litleré Bentsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars often argue that whereas unanimous rulings should boost public support for court decisions, dissents should fuel public opposition. Previous studies on public responses to U.S. Supreme Court decisions suggest that unanimity does in fact bolster support. However, a recent study has also found that dissents may increase support among opponents of a court decision by suggesting evidence of procedural justice. By examining how individuals react to dissents from the Supreme Court of Norway, this article is the first study outside the U.S. context of the public's reaction to unanimity and dissent. Breaking with the common notion of the negative effects of dissent on public support, the article shows that when the Supreme Court handles cases of higher political salience, the formulation of dissenting opinions can be a meaningful way of securing greater support for its policy outputs by suggesting evidence of procedural justice. Contrary to recent studies, however, this positive influence of dissent is irrespective of individuals' ex ante policy views.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 588 - 610
Copyright
© 2019 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartels, Brandon L. & Johnston, Christopher D. (2013) “On the Ideological Foundations of Supreme Court Legitimacy in the American Public,” 57 American J. of Political Science 184–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentsen, Henrik Litleré (2017) “Court Leadership, Agenda Transformation, and Judicial Dissent: A European Case of a 'European Demise of Consensual Norms',” 6 J. of Law and Courts 189–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, William J. 1985. In Defense of Dissents. Available at: http://repository.uchastings.edu/tobriner/17 (accessed 6 September 2017).Google Scholar
Brickman, Danette & Peterson, David A. M. (2006) “Public Opinion Reactions to Repeated Events: Citizen Response to Multiple Supreme Court Abortion Decisions,” 28 Political Behavior 87–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A. & Gibson, James L. (1992) “The Etiology of Public Support for the Supreme Court,” 36 American J. of Political Science 635–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clawson, Rosalee A., Kegler, Elisabeth R., & Waltenburg, Eric N. (2001) “The Legitimacy-Conferring Authority of the U.S. Supreme Court. An Experimental Design,” 26 American Politics Research 566–91.Google Scholar
Dubé, Claire L' Heureux (2000) “The Dissenting Opinion: Voice of the Future?” 38 Osgoode Hall Law J. 495–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, David (1965) A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: John Wiley & Son, Inc.Google Scholar
Easton, David (1975) “A re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support,” 5 British J. of Political Science 435–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, Charles H. & Kosaki, Liane C. (1989) “Republican Schoolmaster: The U.S. Supreme Court, Public Opinion, and Abortion,” 83 The American Political Science Rev. 751–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibson, James L. (2007) “The Legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court in a Polarized Polity,” 4 J. of Empirical Legal Studies 507–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. & Caldeira, Gregory A. (1995) “The Legitimacy of Transnational Legal Institutions: Compliance, Support and the European Court of Justice,” 39 American J. of Political Science 459–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. & Caldeira, Gregory A. (2003) “Defenders of Democracy? Legitimacy, Popular Acceptance, and the South African Constitutional Court,” 65 The J. of Politics 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., Caldeira, Gregory A., & Spence, Lester Kenyatta (2003) “Measuring Attitudes toward the United States Supreme Court,” 47 American J. of Political Science 354–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., Caldeira, Gregory A., & Spence, Lester Kenyatta (2005) “Why Do People Accept Public Policies they Oppose? Testing Legitimacy Theory with a Survey Based Experiment,” 58 Political Research Quarterly 187–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. & Nelson, Michael J. (2014) “The Legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court: Conventional Wisdoms and Recent Challenges Thereto,” 10 Annual Rev. of Law and Social Science 201–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. & Nelson, Michael J. (2015) “Is the U.S. Supreme Court's Legitimacy Grounded in Performance Satisfaction and Ideology?” 59 American J. of Political Science 162–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. & Nelson, Michael J. (2017) “Reconsidering Positivity Theory: What Roles Do Politicization, Ideological Disagreement, and Legal Realism Play in Shaping U.S. Supreme Court Legitimacy?” 14 J. of Empirical Legal Studies 592–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grendstad, Gunnar, Shaffer, William R., & Waltenburg, Eric N. (2015) Policy Making in an Independent Judiciary. The Norwegian Supreme Court. Colchester, UK: ECPR Press.Google Scholar
Grendstad, Gunnar, Shaffer, William R., & Waltenburg, Eric N. (2017) “Norway - Managed Openness and Transparency,” in Davis, R. & Taras, D., eds., Justices and Journalists: The Global Perspective. Cambridge: New York. 235–54.Google Scholar
Grosskopf, Anke & Mondak, Jeffrey J. (1998) “Do Attitudes toward Specific Supreme Court Decisions Matter? The Impact of Webster and Texasv.V Johnson on Public Confidence in the Supreme Court,” 51 Political Research Quarterly 633–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendershot, Marcus E., Hurwitz, Mark S., Lanier, Drew Noble, & Pacelle, Richard L. Jr. (2013) “Dissensual Decision Making: Revisiting the Mysterious Demise of Consensual Norms within the U.S. Supreme Court,” 66 Political Research Quarterly 467–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hettinger, Virginia A., Lindquist, Stefanie A., & Martinek, Wendy L. (2006) Judging on a Collegial Court. Influences on Federal Appellate Decision Making. Charlottesville and London: Univ. of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Hirschl, Ran (2009) “The Judicialization of Politics,” in Caldeira, Gregory A., Kelemen, Daniel R., & Whittington, Keith E., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics. Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hoekstra, Valerie J. & Segal, Jeffrey A. (1996) “The Shepherding of Local Public Opinion: The Supreme Court and Lamb's Chapel,” 58 The J. of Politics 1079–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Timothy R. & Martin, Andrew D. (1998) “The Public's Conditional Response to Supreme Court Decisions,” 98 The American Political Science Rev. 299–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelemen, Katalin (2018) Judicial Dissent in European Constitutional Courts. A Comparative and Legal Perspective. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lind, Edgar Allen & Tyler, Tom R. (1988) The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Thomas R. (1987) “The Supreme Court as an Opinion Leader. Court Decisions and the Mass Public,” 15 American Politics Quarterly 147–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mestad, Ola (2015). "Dissensens alvor. Om nyare dissensar i Høgsterett," in Schei, T., J. E. A. Skoghøy, & T. Øie, eds., Lov, Sannhet, Rett. Norges Høyesterett 200 år. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Mondak, Jeffrey J. (1990) “Perceived Legitimacy of Supreme Court Decisions: Three Functions of Source Credibility,” 12 Political Behavior 363–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondak, Jeffrey J. (1991) “Substantive and Procedural Aspects of Supreme Court Decisions as Determinants of Institutional Approval,” 19 American Politics Quarterly 174–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondak, Jeffrey J. (1992) “Institutional Legitimacy, Policy Legitimacy, and the Supreme Court,” 20 American Politics Quarterly 457–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Steven A. (1981) “Dissent in American Courts,” 43 The J. of Politics 412–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petty, Richard E. & Cacioppo, John T. (1986) “The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion,” in Berkowitz, Leonard, ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. San Diego: Academic Press. 123–205.Google Scholar
Salamone, Michael F. (2014) “Judicial Consensus and Public Opinion: Conditional Response to Supreme Court Majority Size,” 67 Political Research Quarterly 320–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheb, John M. & Lyons, William (2001) “Judicial Behavior and Public Opinion: Popular Expectations Regarding the Factors that Influence Supreme Court Decisions,” 23 Political Behavior 181–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skiple, Jon Kåre, Grendstad, Gunnar, Shaffer, William R., & Waltenburg, Eric N. (2016) “Supreme Court Justices' Economic Behavior: A Multilevel Model Analysis,” 39 Scandinavian Political Studies 73–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skiple, Jon Kåre, Gudbrandsen, Frøy, & Grendstad, Gunnar (2013) “«...som speiler det samfunnet vi har». Høyesterett, asylbarn og den alminnelige rettsoppfatning,” 52 Lov og Rett 609–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunde, Jørn Øyrehagen (2015) Høgsteretts Historie 1965–2015. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.Google Scholar
Sweet, Alec Stone (1992) The Birth of Judicial Politics in France. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Sweet, Alec Stone (2000) Governing with Judges. Constitutional Politics in Europe. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweet, Alec Stone (2002) “Constitutional Courts and Parliamentary Democracy,” 25 West European Politics 77–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoutenborough, James, Haider-Markel, Donald P., & Allen, Mahalley D. (2006) “Reassessing the Impact of Supreme Court Decisions on Public Opinion: Gay Civil Rights Cases,” 53 Political Research Quarterly 419–33.Google Scholar
Tate, Neal & Vallinder, Torbjörn (1995) The Global Expansion of Judicial Power. New York and London: New York Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1988) “What Is Procedural Justice?: Criteria Used by Citizens to Assess the Fairness of Legal Procedures,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (2006) Why People Obey the Law. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. & Rasinski, Kenneth (1991) “Procedural Justice, Institutional Legitimacy, and the Acceptance of Unpopular U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: A Reply to Gibson,” 25 Law & Society Rev. 621–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahlbeck, Paul J., Spriggs, James F., & Maltzman, Forrest (1999) “The Politics of Dissent and Concurrences on the U.S. Supreme Court,” 27 American Politics Research 488–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Thomas G., Epstein, Lee, & Dixon, William J. (1988) “On the Mysterious Demise of Consensual Norms in the United States Supreme Court,” 50 J. of Politics 361–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John R. (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zilis, Michael A. (2015) The Limits of Legitimacy. Dissenting Opinions, Media Coverage, and Public Responses to Supreme Court Decisions. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zink, James R., Spriggs, James F. II, & Scott, John T. (2009) “Courting the Public: The Influence of Decision Attributes on individuals' Views of Court Opinions,” 71 The J. of Politics 909–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Østlid, Henry (1955) “Hvordan offentlig votering ble gjennomført i Norges Høyesterett,” 68 Tidsskrift for Rettsvitenskap 170–207.Google Scholar