Legal Research

This article in the New York Times points out that the number of courts of other nations citing to the United States Supreme Court has declined precipitously in recent years.  Where once the Constitutional law reasoning and holdings of our Supreme Court were studied with great attention, now judges in other countries are more likely to cite to the International Court on Human Rights when discussing individual liberties and rights. 

Multiple reasons are adduced for this decline in influence, including the increasing aversion in which the United States is held abroad.  Another possible reason is the reluctance on the part of many Supreme Court Justices to cite to international case law, even though citation to foreign opinions does not bind the court, which has cited many items, such as song lyrics and law review articles, without converting them into precedent.  And finally, there is the increasingly conservative nature of the Supreme Court, whose decisions are at odds with trends in the rest of the world.