A Global Community of Courts? Modelling the Use of Persuasive Authority as a Complex Network

There is a growing discussion in the legal literature of an emerging global community courts composed network increasing judicial dialogue across national borders. We investigate use foreign persuasive authority common law countries by analyzing citations to case corpus over 1.5 million judgments given senior twenty-six countries. Our derived from data available vLex Justis database. In this paper we aim quantify flow jurisprudence our and explore factors that may influence judge’s selection jurisprudence. Utilization varies data, with some presenting higher engagement than others. analysis shows there has been upward trend time, marked increase borders 1990s onward, potentially indicating increased digital access served facilitate promote comparative analysis. Not only generally have also evolved, judges gradually casting their research beyond most influential well-known authorities. Notwithstanding emanating United Kingdom (chiefly England Wales) constitute frequently consulted body jurisprudence, find evidence domestic favor citing are geographically proximal.