Courts of many minds

Publication Information

Authors: Spiekermann, K. and Goodin, R.E.

Published in: British Journal of Political Science

Year: 2012

Citation: Spiekermann, K. and Goodin, R.E. (2012) "Courts of many minds", British Journal of Political Science, 42(3), pp. 555–571.

In A Constitution of Many Minds Cass Sunstein argues that the three major approaches to constitutional interpretation - Traditionalism, Populism and Cosmopolitanism - all rely on some variation of a ‘many-minds’ argument. Here we assess each of these claims through the lens of the Condorcet Jury Theorem. In regard to the first two approaches we explore the implications of sequential influence among courts (past and foreign, respectively). In regard to the Populist approach, we consider the influence of opinion leaders. Copyright © 2011 Cambridge University Press.