The role of attitudinal, institutional and environmental factors in explaining variations in the dissent rate on the High Court of Australia

Abstract

This paper examines the role of attitudinal, institutional and environmental factors in explaining the dissent rate on the High Court of Australia (hereafter High Court) using data for the period 1904–2001. The paper's main conclusion is that the majority of attitudinal and institutional factors tested are important predictors of variation in the dissent rate while the urbanisation rate, which is used to measure socio-political complexity, has no statistically significant effect on the High Court's dissent rate.