INTRODUCTION: TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF IMPACT?

The field of judicial impact studies really started flourishing in the 1970s. After an initial period of descriptive studies – registering the reactions and the behaviour of public offices and the general public – researchers began to develop explanatory hypotheses and theoretical approaches. At this point in the endeavour, many scholars shared a feeling of great optimism that a ‘general theory of impact’ had finally come within reach. This is also reflected in The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions, one of the earliest collections of impact research at the time. The most important difference between the first (1969) and second (1973) edition of the book was the introduction of an entirely new section called ‘Toward a Theory of Impact’. According to the editors, the articles included therein ‘demonstrate that interest in impact has matured’. In his chapter, Stephen Wasby lists a total of 135 hypotheses that were derived from the existing impact literature.

At present, more than three decades of judicial impact studies later, there is still no general theory of impact. Moreover, for most scholars working in the field, the early optimism of the 1970s has been traded in for a sense of realism that the present body of literature is still a long way from any type of theoretical synthesis.