Comparative judicial study, Switzerland and South Africa, 1970-1971

Description

This study is a collection of several integrated datasets of different types, designed to facilitate both cross-cultural and sub-cultural analyses of anthropological, sociological, psychological, and legal variables, upon the construction of the performance in their political roles, of elites who are the judges of the highest courts of Switzerland and the Republic of South Africa. The two countries were selected because of the direct representation of subcultures in their court systems, and because of the putative vast differences in their ecological settings. The datasets were collected by the use of several different methods. The primary method was field survey research, with one to two hour interviews. In Switzerland, the respondents consisted of 24 judges and 17 judicial assistants of the Tribunal Federal in Lausanne, in South Africa, the respondents were 47 judges of the Supreme Court. The interview consisted of three major parts: background characteristics, open-ended questions dealing with the decision- making process of the courts, and a 72-item attitudinal inventory. The second method used was direct observation of social interaction during the decision-making process, which was only possible in Switzerland.