Judicial Independence Under a Divided Polity: A Study of the Rulings of the French Constitutional Court, 1959-2006

This article analyzes whether the much-touted independence ofthe Conseil Constitutionnel (CC), the French ConstitutionalCourt, is genuine. We construct a data set that comprises allthe rulings of the CC between 1959 and 2006, taking into accountthe composition of the CC as well as the characteristics ofthe legislation reviewed by the judges. We find that the judgesmainly rendered independent rulings when the polity was dividedbetween left-wing and right-wing parties. (JEL D72, D73, K40)