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Full-Text Articles in Law
Judicial Dismissal In The Interest Of Justice, Valena E. Beety
Judicial Dismissal In The Interest Of Justice, Valena E. Beety
Missouri Law Review
Of the 1.6 million Americans in prison, most inmates are serving sentences for non-violent offenses. Who is responsible? Hyper-incarceration is not simply due to outdated drug laws or stringent sentencing. Courts in the last thirty years have taken a lackadaisical back seat. Prosecutors are failing in their gate-keeping function nationally. Most simple arrests are prosecuted without even evaluating the substance of the case. Police stops can snowball into convictions through our plea system. In short, the criminal justice system provides no systemic accountability for its own results. This Article focuses on this lack of accountability and proposes a conceptual shift, …
What Judges Want And Need: User-Friendly Foundations For Effective Judicial Education, Duane Benton, Jennifer A.L. Sheldon-Sherman
What Judges Want And Need: User-Friendly Foundations For Effective Judicial Education, Duane Benton, Jennifer A.L. Sheldon-Sherman
Journal of Dispute Resolution
This article evaluates the connection between judicial education and judges’ needs and preferences. In Part I, we begin by discussing the history, purpose, and form of judicial education, charting its evolution over time. In Part II, we examine current judicial education programs and scholarship, highlighting differences and similarities between federal and state programming. In Part III, we analyze the limitations of existing scholarship and programming, arguing judicial education programs are insufficiently tied to evidence of judicial demands. We conclude in Parts IV and V by suggesting two proposals to align programming with needs: (1) an annual needs-based assessment of judicial …
Writing Reasoned Decisions And Opinions: A Guide For Novice, Experienced, And Foreign Judges, S. I. Strong
Writing Reasoned Decisions And Opinions: A Guide For Novice, Experienced, And Foreign Judges, S. I. Strong
Journal of Dispute Resolution
Producing well-written reasoned judgments (a term that is used herein to denote both trial court decisions and appellate opinions) is the goal of all members of the bench. Badly written rulings can have significant legal consequences for both the parties, who may incur costs as a result of a need to appeal a poorly worded decision or opinion, and society as a whole, since a poorly drafted precedent may drive the law in an unanticipated and unfortunate direction or lead to increased litigation as individuals attempt to define the parameters of an ambiguous new ruling. As a result, helping judges …
Of Judges, Law, And The River: Tacit Knowledge And The Judicial Role, Chad M. Oldfather
Of Judges, Law, And The River: Tacit Knowledge And The Judicial Role, Chad M. Oldfather
Journal of Dispute Resolution
“What does it mean to be a judge?” That’s a tall order, and one is tempted to begin—and perhaps to end—by formulating taxonomy of characteristics that judges ought to have. Indeed, that is a tactic that others have used. The resulting lists differ in their particulars, but are broadly similar. The enumerated traits include attributes like intelligence, legal knowledge, judgment, decisiveness, and so on.
Educating Judges—Where To From Here?, Livingston Armytage
Educating Judges—Where To From Here?, Livingston Armytage
Journal of Dispute Resolution
In this article, I present a critique of the emerging global practice of judicial education, which has been established and grown substantially over the past thirty years. There are four challenges relating to vision, pedagogy, knowledge and leadership that confront the continuing development of judicial education.
Judicial Education: Pedagogy For A Change, T. Brettel Dawson
Judicial Education: Pedagogy For A Change, T. Brettel Dawson
Journal of Dispute Resolution
Canadian judges have maintained a steadfast, long-term commitment to judicial education. Through teaching one another, judges renew their vision over time, and more concretely, address their concerns and challenges today. Since its inception in 1985, the National Judicial Institute (NJI) has sought to be a partner and a resource to judges and Courts in a shared endeavour to create relevant, practical, and effective judicial education. Working together, the NJI, judges, and Courts have built a “Canadian model” of judicial education widely respected and emulated.
Judging As Judgment: Tying Judicial Education To Adjudication Theory, Robert G. Bone
Judging As Judgment: Tying Judicial Education To Adjudication Theory, Robert G. Bone
Journal of Dispute Resolution
The thesis of this Article, simply stated, is that judicial education makes sense only against the backdrop of general ideas and beliefs about law, courts, and adjudication. These ideas and beliefs motivate a focus on educating judges and help guide more specific pedagogical choices. I explore this broad thesis from both a historical and a normative perspective. Historically, I argue that interest in judicial education caught fire in the 1960s in large part because of prevailing beliefs about law and the proper function of courts. Normatively, I argue that the connection between judicial education and normative views of courts and …
Federalism, Diversity, Equality, And Article Iii Judges: Geography, Identity, And Bias , Sharon E. Rush
Federalism, Diversity, Equality, And Article Iii Judges: Geography, Identity, And Bias , Sharon E. Rush
Missouri Law Review
Each individual has a background, and that background shapes the individual's views about life, creating an inevitable form of bias referred to as "experiential bias." Experiential bias is shaped by many identity traits, including, among others, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion and even geography. The geographic identity of state judges and their potential unfair experiential bias is the common justification for federal court diversity jurisdiction. But experiential bias is inescapable, affecting everyone who's ever had an experience, and is generally not unfair, as demonstrated by most studies regarding the "fairness" justification for diversity jurisdiction. More recently, Justice O'Connor connected racial …
Distinguishing Judges: An Empirical Ranking Of Judicial Quality In The United States Court Of Appeals, Robert Anderson
Distinguishing Judges: An Empirical Ranking Of Judicial Quality In The United States Court Of Appeals, Robert Anderson
Missouri Law Review
This Article presents an empirical performance ranking of 383 federal appellate judges who served on the United States Courts of Appeals between 1960 and 2008. Like existing judge evaluation studies, this Article uses citations from judicial opinions to assess judicial quality. Unlike existing citation studies, which treat positive and negative citations alike, this Article ranks judges according to the mix of positive and negative citations to the opinions, rather than the number of citations to those opinions. By distinguishing between positive and negative citations, this approach avoids ranking judges higher for citations even when the judges are being cited negatively. …
Plea For Reality, A, Roy A. Schotland
Plea For Reality, A, Roy A. Schotland
Missouri Law Review
Thank you for the privilege and the pleasure of joining you, in the best possible state for any discussion of judicial selection and blessedly at a distinguished law school. For me, after twenty-five years of involvement in the judicial election scene and four weeks after retiring from teaching - but not, I hope, from continued involvement - this is a unique opportunity to share views, air questions, consider the ever-evolving changes and challenges, and speak bluntly on a few points. I treasure the friendships I have built with others similarly involved, and I hope that my comments, some of which …
Adding Judicial Mediation To The Debate About Judges Attempting To Settle Cases Assigned To Them For Trial, Peter Robinson
Adding Judicial Mediation To The Debate About Judges Attempting To Settle Cases Assigned To Them For Trial, Peter Robinson
Journal of Dispute Resolution
The article then explores the ramifications of the Uniform Mediation Act's express inapplicability of its confidentiality provisions to a mediation "conducted by a judge who might make a ruling on the case." Finally, the article suggests how the advent of judicial mediation might lead to standards of practice that would clarify the law and resolve the debate about judges conducting either settlement conferences or mediations for cases assigned to them for trial.
Courts Have The Final Say: Does The Doctrine Of Manifest Disregard Promote Lawful Arbitral Awards Or Disguise Unlawful Judicial Review, Lindsay Biesterfeld
Courts Have The Final Say: Does The Doctrine Of Manifest Disregard Promote Lawful Arbitral Awards Or Disguise Unlawful Judicial Review, Lindsay Biesterfeld
Journal of Dispute Resolution
In exchange for a speedy, economical dispute resolution process, parties that submit to binding arbitration assume the risk that an arbitrator might misapply the law. United States Supreme Court precedent and federal law favor agreements to arbitrate by limiting judicial review of arbitral awards and requiring courts to "rigorously enforce arbitration agreements." These judicial constraints support the arbitral goals of efficiency and finality by reducing the risk that arbitral awards will be vacated on appeal. To balance the risk that arbitrators may abuse this standard of review, courts have supplemented restricted judicial review with a doctrine that allows an arbitral …
Judge's Role In Settlement: Opinions From Missouri Judges And Attorneys, The, James A. Wall Jr., Dale E. Rude
Judge's Role In Settlement: Opinions From Missouri Judges And Attorneys, The, James A. Wall Jr., Dale E. Rude
Journal of Dispute Resolution
This study investigates judges' involvement in settlement, and the opinions that Missouri judges and attorneys hold toward that involvement. In a survey of 1,100 judges and 1,550 attorneys, we found that Missouri judges differ significantly from Missouri attorneys. Specifically, Missouri judges prefer less judicial involvement in settlement and they, in the cases sent to them, were less aggressive in facilitating settlement. Finally, judges and attorneys from Missouri's metropolitan areas were found to favor stronger involvement in settlement than were their counterparts from the non-metropolitan areas.