The Supreme Court's Panel Structure

One of the important features of the Indian Supreme Court is its panel structure. At present it has 27 judges that on a characteristic day may sit in benches of two or three judges in one of over a dozen active courtrooms. In this sense, it's not a single court, but various courts. In this article that is to be published later this year in the American Journal of Comparative Law I look at how the Court's structure was promoted to further positive values or understandings of what a supreme court should be.

I argue that the desire for access to the Indian Supreme Court has come at the cost of a few of the cohesiveness of the Court's doctrine. But it has moreover had less intuitive consequences as well. It has encouraged judicial entrepreneurs who can use lesser benches to push precedent farther or more creatively than they may be able to if they sat on a larger bench.

It has empowered a Chief Justice dominant Court, where the Chief Justice's power to set benches and move cases has completed him the clear focal point and leader of an otherwise relatively fragmented institution and it has arguably helped decrease perceptions of politicization of the institution by the public because it is so hard for outsiders (or insiders) to see the creation of clearly defined coalitions of judges as happens on combined benches like the US Supreme Court where conservative and liberal wings of the court are well documented and debated.

Supreme Court passes decision on legislative vote

The Congolese Supreme Court issued a verdict on a few of the legislative election disputes yesterday. I have posted a roll of the decisions here. In general, the court went against a few weighty interests, including by invalidating the two brothers of election commissioner Ngoy Mulunda (other members of the presidential majority took their places), as well as heavyweights similar to Jean-Jacques Mutuale (MLC), Anzuluni Bembe (opposition, former Mobutu strongman), Colette Tshomba (former deputy minister), Jean-Claude Baende (majority, governor of Equateur) and Jerome Kamate (opposition, former deputy minister).

The list comprises 32 invalidations of elected MPs; most of the disputes were between members of the ruling coalition. If I am counting correctly, three opposition MPs lost their seats to the ruling coalition, though the opposite does not seem to have occurred.

At the same time, the Supreme Court called for the left over results from the rest of the country to be at large reversing the election commission's cancellation of the legislative vote everywhere except for Masisi, where a original vote will need to be held.

Supreme Court Loses Favor with the Public

Public assessments of the Supreme Court include reached a quarter-century low. Unlike evaluations over much of the earlier period decade, there is very little partisan divide. The court receives relatively low positive ratings from Republicans, Democrats and independents alike.

The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted April 4-15, 2012 among 1,514 adults nationwide, finds 52% offering a positive opinion of the Supreme Court, down from 58% in 2010 and the earlier low of 57%, in 2005 and 2007. About three-in-ten (29%) say they have an unfavorable view, which approaches the elevated reached in 2005 (30%).

According to the poll, 56% of Republicans, and 52% of both Democrats and independents rate the Supreme Court positively. That compares with April 2009, when 70% of Republicans, 63% of Democrats and 64% of independents held a positive opinion of the court.