Consensus-seeking in Civil Law Constitutional Courts: the Case of the French Conseil Constitutionnel

Abstract: This paper contributes to a growing literature on the empirical investigation of judicial decision-making in Constitutional Courts. To analyze the pressure for consensus-seeking in Civil Law Constitutional Courts, we construct a database of abstract judicial review decisions of the French Conseil Constitutionnel between 1995 and 2013. Our findings indicate that French Justices seek for both internal and external consensus when ruling on the conformity of laws with the Constitution. These results confirm previous findings on the pressure for consensus in Civil Law courts and infirm predictions about political and ideological competition at the Constitutional Court’s level.