Writing in NLJ this week, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, argues that judicial win-loss records can provide a useful indicator, provided they are interpreted with care.
Drawing on evidence from the UK, US and India, he suggests neither extreme is desirable: governments that rarely lose may benefit from excessive judicial deference, while those that lose repeatedly may expose weak decision-making or excessive litigation.
He notes that 'the win-loss record is not the destination, but it is a meaningful signpost', and warns that statistics alone cannot measure judicial independence. Instead, they should sit alongside broader rule-of-law indicators to assess whether governments are genuinely constrained by law and citizens can obtain effective legal remedies.
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