ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a full text dataset of more than 4,100 decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) between January 1975 and December 2021 and conducts an overview analysis of the data, exploring (1) the Court's evolution, (2) cleavages on the Court, and (3) judicial practice before the SCC. Among other things, it shows that the adoption of the Charter produced the most influential Supreme Court precedents and led to more readable constitutional law decisions. It also illustrates how female justices on the Court shaped the language of decisions. In general, the chapter serves as backdrop for the remainder of the book, providing a bird’s-eye perspective on patterns and trends that are explored in more depth in subsequent chapters.
