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Error Correction, Chad M. Oldfather

Chad M Oldfather

Under most accounts of appellate review, error correction stands with law declaration as the core institutional functions. Yet while a vast amount of scholarship addresses the process of judicial law creation, error correction has received little attention, and there appears to be a consensus that it is straightforward and settled. One goal of this article is to challenge this understanding. To be sure, the architecture of our judiciary reflects a worldview in which legal questions have correct answers and courts’ role is simply to find them. On that understanding there is nothing for appellate courts to do but correct error. …