Averige duration of procedure Rule of law Efficiency
and integrity for business Enforceability
of contracts Mandatory
deadlines Regulation of dispute
resolutionJudicial independence
| Variable | Measurement | Era | SPSS code | N | Source |
| Judicial independence | Independence of highest court based solely on the legal foundations as found in legal documents | 1990s | LegalIndependence1_90s | 58 | Feld & Voigt 2003 |
| Factually ascertainable degree of independence of highest court | 1960 - 98 | LegalIndependence2_98 | 50 | Feld & Voigt 2003 | |
| Average duration of a procedure | Mean duration of the ‘Eviction of a tenant’ and the ‘Collection of a Check’(in calendar days), describing the total average duration of the ‘duration between the filing of the complaint and the moment of service of process to defendant’ + ‘duration between the service of the process and the moment the judgement is issued’+ ‘duration between the judgement and the moment the landlord repossesses the property or the creditor obtains payment. | 1990s | LegalLenght_90s | 75 | Djankov c.s. 2001 |
| Rule of law | Perceptions of incidence and costs of crime, the effectiveness and predictability of the judiciary, and the enforceability of contracts. | 1997/98 | RuleLaw_98 | 91 | Kaufmann c.s. 1998 |
| 2000/01 | RuleLaw_01 | 91 | Kaufmann c.s. 2001 | ||
| 2002 | RuleLaw_2002 | 173 | Kaufmann 2001, table C5 | ||
| 2006 | RuleLaw_2006 | 175 | Kaufmann 2005, table C5 | ||
| Efficiency and integrity of legal system for business | Assessment of efficiency and integrity of legal environment as it affects business, particularly foreign firms; average between 1980 and 1983. Scale 0-10, lower scores represent lower efficiency. | 1980-83 | LegalEffect_80 | 48 | Djankov c.s. 2001 |
| Enforceability of contracts | Measures the relative degree to which (international) contractual agreements are honored and complications are present due to language and mentality differences. Scale 0-10, higher scores indicating higher enforceability. | 1990s | LegalEnforce_90s | 47 | Djankov c.s. 2001 |
| Index of Mandatory Deadlines | Mean of 'Check Collection’ and ‘Eviction of Tenant’. The higher the index, ranging 0-1, the more restrictive the law is. Index is average of the term for admission, to present evidence, to present defense, to form judgment, for compliance and for the notification of judgment. | 1990s | LegalDeadlines_90s | 75 | Djankov c.s. 2001 |
| Regulation of Dispute Resolution Index | Describes substantive and procedural statutory intervention in judicial cases at lower-level civil trial courts and is formed by adding up the following indices: 1) Professional vs. laymen index, 2) Written versus oral index, 3) Legal justification index, 4) Statutory regulation of evidence index, 5) Superior review/control index, 6) Other statutory interventions index, and 7) Independent procedural actions >= median. Mean of cases ‘Eviction of a tenant’ and ‘Collection of a check’. Ranks 0 to 7; 7 means higher level of control/intervention. | 1990s | LegalDisputeReg_90s | 75 | Djankov c.s. 2001 |
| Related variables: Regulatory quality: topic Economic freedom |
Related topics: |
Related themes Crime Law and order Legal system |
States of Nations is an inventory of country characteristics. It is part of the World Database of Happiness
Keywords added: Cross-national, Legal security, Institutional quality, Governance, Separation of powers