Why do we need databases in research on comparative judicial behaviour? This chapter argues that comprehensive assessments of common models on judicial behaviour require data on decisions, judges, and environmental characteristics. An expert survey shows that data on these characteristics was often published in rectangular datasets focusing on courts in the United States or specific International Courts mostly allowing assessments of the attitudinal model of judicial behaviour. Databases on courts in other regions that allow the assessment of judicial behaviour have been published more recently. They allow for the modelling of different entities—such as information on decisions and information on judges—and establishing the relationships between them; for example, linking specific judges to specific decision outcomes. The advantage of designing databases is to summarize clearly specified concepts in parsimonious and flexible ways without producing redundancies when collecting data. Comparative judicial databases including information on the action of multiple courts are scarce. However, scholars of judicial politics can learn from existing comparative projects such as the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) to design a Comparative Study of Judicial Behaviour (CSJB).
