Supporting Comparative Studies of Judicial Behavior: Introducing the Australian High Court Database
Abstract
Comparative research on law and legal institutions depends on high-quality data infrastructure. This article introduces the Australian High Court Database-a new resource that encodes structured information on all full judgments of the High Court of Australia between 1995 and 2020, and all special leave applications (Australia's equivalent to certiorari) from 2003 to 2018. The database is built in accordance with core principles that support comparative research: it is adaptable, and comparable. By attending to jurisdictional specificity while adhering to general standards, the database supports both within-country analysis and cross-national comparison. Examples of applications in comparative judicial research are provided.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Legal Education and Practice Innovations
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of law & empirical analysis.
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 251–263
- Publication date
- 18 April 2026
- Language
- EN