According to popular wisdom, judicial independence and the rule of law are essential features of modern democracy. Drawing on the growing comparative literature on courts, we unpack this claim by focusing on two broad questions: How does the type of political regime affect judicial independence?...

This paper examines the foundations of the Italian Constitutional Court's authority by comparing it with that of the German Federal Constitutional Court. In comparison to the German Court, la Corte had to build its authority on a particularly weak legal basis. However, it succeeded in developing...

We argue that a higher degree of de facto independence of the legal system from the other government branches as well as public trust in the legal system may reduce the average inflation record of countries through a direct and an indirect channel. The direct channel works by affecting potential...