How Do Judges' Personal Views Affect Asylum Rulings?

UCL Uncovering Politics · May 28, 2026 · 40m

Courts are supposed to treat like cases alike. But research consistently finds that judges' backgrounds and beliefs can influence their decisions. Most research focuses on courts where individual votes are public, but what about in systems where only a collective judgment is published?

A new study uses innovative statistical analysis of Swiss court data to shed light on exactly this problem, with implications for how judicial institutions everywhere should be designed.

Joining host Alan Renwick are two of the study's authors, both from the UCL Department of Political Science: Ben Lauderdale…