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Full-Text Articles in Law
Friendly Precedent, Anthony Niblett, Albert H. Yoon
Friendly Precedent, Anthony Niblett, Albert H. Yoon
William & Mary Law Review
This Article explores which legal precedents judges choose to support their decisions.When describing the legal landscape in a written opinion, which precedent do judges gravitate toward? We examine the idea that judges are more likely to cite friendly precedent. A friendly precedent, here, is one that was delivered by Supreme Court Justices who have similar political preferences to the lower court judges delivering the opinion. In this Article, we test whether a federal Court of Appeals panel is more likely to engage with binding Supreme Court precedent when the political flavor of that precedent is aligned with the political composition …
Community Versus Market Values Of Life, Robert Cooter, David Depianto
Community Versus Market Values Of Life, Robert Cooter, David Depianto
William & Mary Law Review
Individuals and communities make choices affecting the risk of accidental death. Individuals balance risk and cost in market choices, for example, by purchasing costly safety products or taking a dangerous job for higher pay. Communities balance risk and cost through social norms of precaution, which prescribe how much risk people may impose on others and on themselves. For example, social norms dictate that bicyclists should wear helmets and automobile passengers should wear seat belts. In both cases, the balance between the fatality risk and the cost of reducing it reveals an implicit value of a statistical life, or VSL an …