How Does Case Law Shape Civil Law Systems? An Analysis of Spanish Administrative Courts

The paper explores the use of case law by Spanish administrative courts. Based on a database of 2964 sentences, a content analysis captures the integration of case law into the legal basis of court rulings. Even though case law is not listed as a source of law in the Spanish legal system, courts follow case law from either the same sentencing court (self-referential pattern) or higher courts (hierarchical pattern). The results of a logistic regression analysis point to a higher level of regulatory complexity and the configuration of the appellate procedures as incentives to integrate higher courts’ case law.