Decoding the Court: Legal Data Insights from the Supreme Court of Canada

This edited collection combines state-of-the-art legal data analytics with in-depth doctrinal analysis to study the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), Canada’s top court. A data analytics perspective adds new dimensions to the study of courts and their case law. It renders legal analysis scalable, making it possible to investigate thousands of judicial decisions, adding new breadth and depth. It also enables researchers to combine doctrinal questions about how the law evolves with institutional questions about how courts operate, shedding new light on how law works in practice. By applying a range of methods to study the content of SCC decisions, this work bridges the gap between qualitative and quantitative research. Demonstrating how new analytical perspectives can generate new insights about the Supreme Court, an institution which is closely studied by scholars both within and outside Canada, the book will be essential reading for legal scholars and political scientists, particularly those working in public law and in empirical legal studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Decoding the Court: Legal Data Insights from the Supreme Court of Canada

This edited collection combines state-of-the-art legal data analytics with in-depth doctrinal analysis to study the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), Canada’s top court. A data analytics perspective adds new dimensions to the study of courts and their case law. It renders legal analysis scalable, making it possible to investigate thousands of judicial decisions, adding new breadth and depth. It also enables researchers to combine doctrinal questions about how the law evolves with institutional questions about how courts operate, shedding new light on how law works in practice. By applying a range of methods to study the content of SCC decisions, this work bridges the gap between qualitative and quantitative research. Demonstrating how new analytical perspectives can generate new insights about the Supreme Court, an institution which is closely studied by scholars both within and outside Canada, the book will be essential reading for legal scholars and political scientists, particularly those working in public law and in empirical legal studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Decoding the Court: Legal Data Insights from the Supreme Court of Canada

Decoding the Court: Legal Data Insights from the Supreme Court of Canada

Decoding the Court: Legal Data Insights from the Supreme Court of Canada

Decoding the Court: Legal Data Insights from the Supreme Court of Canada

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Overview

This edited collection combines state-of-the-art legal data analytics with in-depth doctrinal analysis to study the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), Canada’s top court. A data analytics perspective adds new dimensions to the study of courts and their case law. It renders legal analysis scalable, making it possible to investigate thousands of judicial decisions, adding new breadth and depth. It also enables researchers to combine doctrinal questions about how the law evolves with institutional questions about how courts operate, shedding new light on how law works in practice. By applying a range of methods to study the content of SCC decisions, this work bridges the gap between qualitative and quantitative research. Demonstrating how new analytical perspectives can generate new insights about the Supreme Court, an institution which is closely studied by scholars both within and outside Canada, the book will be essential reading for legal scholars and political scientists, particularly those working in public law and in empirical legal studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781032245270
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 12/26/2025
Pages: 158
Product dimensions: 5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Wolfgang Alschner is Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, where he leads the Legal Technology Lab.

Vanessa MacDonnell is Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and Co-Director of the uOttawa Public Law Centre.

Carissima Mathen is a Full Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Canada.

Table of Contents

Contents

 

 

Introduction

Wolfgang Alschner, Vanessa MacDonnell & Carissima Mathen

 

Chapter 1: A Bird’s-Eye View of the Canadian Supreme Court

Wolfgang Alschner & Keenan MacNeal

 

 

Part One - Evolution of the Court

 

Chapter 2: Four Stories About Canada’s Separation of Powers Doctrine

Vanessa MacDonnell & Keenan MacNeal

 

Chapter 3: Using Network Citation Analysis to Reveal Precedential Archetypes at the Supreme Court of Canada

Wolfgang Alschner & Isabelle St-Hilaire

 

 

Part Two: Cleavages on the Court

 

Chapter 4: Navigating Judicial Disagreement

Carissima Mathen, Keenan MacNeal, Stephen Bindman & Kelley Humber

 

Chapter 5: Bilingualism at the Supreme Court of Canada: Quantifying Citations to English, French, and Bilingual Doctrinal Sources

Terry Skolnik & Keenan MacNeal

 

 

Part Three: Changing Judicial Practice

 

Chapter 6: The Supreme Court of Canada Leave Project: A Dataset and Machine Learning Model for Predicting Leave Application Outcomes

Paul-Erik Veel & Katie Glowach

 

Chapter 7: The Supreme Court of Canada and Mainstreamed Judicial Analytics

Jena McGill & Amy Salyzyn

 

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