Comparative Agendas

A Political Science Perspective on the New Zealand Supreme Court’s Docket

“From Applications to Appeals: A Political Science Perspective on the New Zealand Supreme Court’s Docket,” Rhonda Evans Case and Sean Fern (pp. 33-60). In their contribution to this volume, Evans and Fern examine agenda-setting on the New Zealand Supreme Court for the period from 2004 to 2012, the first eight years of the Court’s existence. The Court possesses broad authority to set its agenda. Evans and Fern find that the Court crafted an agenda that is substantively broader than that of the Privy Council, the body that previously served as New Zealand’s final appellate tribunal. They also find that legal factors as opposed to litigant status or lawyer experience best explain the process through which the Court sets its agenda.