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Judicial bodies as the third branch of political systems play an increasingly important role in contemporary politics in every part of the world and in the concepts of comparative politics (Ginsburg 2003; Sadurski 2002; Tate/Vallinder 1995). In spite of this importance, research about Constitutional Courts and Judicial Politics in Western and Eastern Europe is under-developed compared to the US where one finds very regular and lively debates. Whittington, Kelemen, Caldeira (2008: 10) state:: “…the subfield of comparative politics largely ignored law and politics, while the subfield of law and politics largely ignored law and courts outside the US”. This statement is confirmed by a short look at the number of articles being published on courts: While we find 56 articles in the years between 1995 and 2005 in the AJPS and APSR, at the same time there have been only 10 articles in West European Politics and the European Journal of Political Research.
European researchers being interested in the field of Courts and Judicial Politics has found so far neither at the national nor at the European level appropriate working structures to convene, meet and exchange ideas. They are isolated in their work and usually only meet at international conferences at APSA, at IPSA or at the Law and Society Association.
In reaction to this situation, the initiative to ask for the creation of an ECPR standing group has been taken by a group of scholars. The aim of the group is to overcome the limits described above by creating a network of scholars being interested in the field of Law & Politics and to promote comparative and cross-national research on this topic by the exchange of ideas, discussion of current issues and the facilitation of joint research. We sincerely hope the group will be helpful in stimulating the judicial politics field regarding issues, theories, methods and data. In detail, the group has the following aims:
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