Courts Commons^™

No Free Lunch: How Settlement Can Reduce The Legal System's Ability To Induce Efficient Behavior, Abraham Lee Wickelgren

ExpressO

While there is widespread agreement that it is better for cases to settle than go to trial, the arguments in favor of settlement have typically overlooked how settlement affects one of the most important functions of the legal system: influencing the behavior that gives rise to lawsuits. This essay argues that, in some cases, settlement can impair the ability of the legal system to deter harmful behavior without chilling desirable behavior. Where it exists, this effect is a fundamental property of settlement in that there is no way to change other legal rules to eliminate it. Because settlements also have …

Rethinking Judicial Elections, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Voting And Electoral Politics In The Wisconsin Supreme Court, Jason J. Czarnezki

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines criminal cases decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court over a fifteen-year period in an effort to discern whether judicial elections undercut judicial independence by affecting the ways justices vote. Wisconsin was chosen for this study because the state's mix of appointed and elected judges allows a researcher to control for different judicial selection systems. Specifically, this Article questions whether voting patterns may be affected by a justice's proximity to judicial elections, election margins, and whether a justice was appointed or elected in the initial term, since the governor may appoint a justice to fill a vacancy on …

Why Judicial Elections Stink, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Those who are concerned about judicial independence and accountability in the United States quite rightly focus their attention on state judicial election campaigns. It is there that the most sustained and successful efforts to threaten judicial tenure in response to isolated, unpopular judicial decisions have occurred; and it is there that escalating campaign spending has created a public perception that judges are influenced by the contributions they receive. Attempts to address these problems have been undermined by four political realities that the author refers to as "the Axiom of 80 ": Eighty percent of the public favors electing their judges; …

The Politics Of Crime And The Threat To Judicial Independence, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Political (Science) Context Of Judging, Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, Andrew D. Martin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Brief Amicus Curiae Of The Idaho Conservation League And The Louisiana Environmental Action Network In Support Of Neither Side, Republican Party Of Minnesota V. Kelly, No. 01-521 (U.S. Jan. 17, 2002), John D. Echeverria

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Inside Scoop: What Federal Judges Really Think About The Way Lawyers Write, Kristen Konrad Robbins-Tiscione

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A recent survey indicates that what troubles federal judges most is not what lawyers say but what they fail to say when writing briefs. Although lawyers do a good job articulating legal issues and citing controlling, relevant legal authority, they are not doing enough with the law itself. Only fifty-six percent of the judges surveyed said that lawyers “always” or “usually” make their client’s best arguments. Fifty-eight percent of the judges rated the quality of the legal analysis as just “good,” as opposed to “excellent” or “very good.” The problem seems to be that briefs lack rigorous analysis, and the …

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Depublication And Nonpublication Of Opinions Raise Motive Questions, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The basis for these comments is a decision last year by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Anastasoff v. United States. The court held that an Eighth Circuit local rule, which authorized nonpublication of opinions and explicitly stated that unpublished opinions were to have no precedential effect, was unconstitutional. The panel, in an opinion by Judge Richard S. Arnold, reasoned that a court rule purporting to confer upon appellate judges an absolute power to decide which decisions would be binding and which would not be binding went well beyond the “judicial power” within the meaning of Article III of …

Chief Judge Edward R. Becker: A Truly Remarkable Judge, Marci A. Hamilton

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Judiciary In The United States: A Search For Fairness, Independence And Competence, Stephen J. Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

Alexander Hamilton referred to the judiciary as “the least dangerous branch” because it could neither make nor enforce the law without help from the other two branches of government. In the years since then, however, courts and judges in the United States have assumed a much more prominent role in society. American judges preside over criminal trials and sentence those convicted, decide all kinds of civil disputes, both large and small, and make important decisions involving families, such as child custody. They have also become the primary guarantors of the civil and constitutional rights of American citizens.

The case of …

Publicly Financed Judicial Elections: An Overview, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The William S. Boyd School Of Law Juvenile Justice Clinic, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

This article reviews the work of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Court Fixing, Tracey E. George

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article critically examines the existing social science evidence on the relative importance of various individual factors on judicial behavior and adds to that evidence by considering the influence of prior academic experience on judges. Researchers have not focused much attention on the importance of a judge's background as a full-time law professor and legal scholar, although more than thirteen percent of courts of appeals appointees were former law professors. Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan both viewed the federal judiciary (particularly the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals) as integral to their policy agendas, and both further believed that …

An Exploratory Study Of Domestic Violence Attitudes Among Virginia Magistrates, Elaine M. Phillips

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Currently, 43 states utilize magistrates in the criminal justice response to domestic violence. In Virginia, magistrates have the power to grant emergency protective orders and arrest warrants in domestic violence cases. In 1996, Virginia instituted a new mandatory arrest law. This study explores magistrates' attitudes toward the new law. It also examines their attitudes toward victims and offenders involved in domestic violence cases. The study utilizes data from Crossland's 1998 survey of Virginia magistrates (n=239). Hypotheses based on conflict theory and feminist theory lead to hypotheses that predict that magistrates' attitudes will vary depending on the race, educational level and …

Neutral Assignment Of Judges At The Court Of Appeals, J. Robert Brown Jr., Allison Herren Lee

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Judges on panels at the US Court of Appeals are not intended to represent a mosaic of society. They bring an assortment of biases and predispositions to the decision making process. Judicial integrity is ostensibly protected, however, through the use of neutral assignment. Judges are assigned to panels randomly, without consideration of the particular cases to be decided.

In fact, this is not necessarily the case. In 1963, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit alleged that membership on panels had been deliberately skewed to ensure a pro-civil rights majority. An analysis of the historical …

Removing A "Section 96" Judge: An Historical Case Study, Barry Cahill

Dalhousie Law Journal

The creation of the Canadian Judicial Council in 1971 and the gradual disappearance of county and district court judges into the superior court judiciary filled a lacuna in the Constitution Act, 1867. The tenure of county court judges was less secure than that of superior court judges, which was constitutionally entrenched and protected. The Judges Act, passed originally to provide for the removal of county court judges, articulated a mechanism which was extended to superior court judges at about the same time as county and district courts were beginning to disappear from the Canadian judicial scene. The lack of such …

Racial Diversity On The Bench: Beyond Role Models And Public Confidence, Sherrilyn A. Ifill

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Lobbying At The Wto: The Debate Over The Use Of Amicus Curiae Briefs And The U.S. Experience, Padideh Ala'i

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The continuing debate over the use of amicus curiae briefs at the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) raises interesting questions about the influence of the U.S. legal system on the WTO dispute settlement process. Specifically, it brings to the surface differences between legal cultures and the fact that the U.S. legal culture with its emphasis on procedure is not readily transferable to the WTO. Comparing the controversy regarding the use of amicus curiae briefs before WTO Panels and the Appellate Body with the history and evolution of the institution of amicus curiae before the U.S. Supreme Court may help explain the …

What Will Diversity On The Bench Mean For Justice?, Theresa M. Beiner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This article is aimed at the general question: whether having a woman judge would make a difference in sexual harassment cases. This article is aimed at this general question, the response to which has been elusive: Does the race, gender, or other background characteristics of a judge make a difference in the outcome of cases? The effects of diversity on the bench are just becoming measurable. Many legal scholars have assumed diversity will make a difference. While this conclusion may seem commonsensical, it is important to be able to support such assertions with actual data. The supposition has been that …

Embracing Descent: The Bankruptcy Of A Business Paradigm For Conceptualizing And Regulating The Legal Profession, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Lawyers are said to travel in packs, or at least pairs, and in the popular parlance are often compared to hoards of locusts, herds of cattle, or unruly mobs. However, at least for purposes of assessing concerns with professionalism currently surrounding the bar and the public, whether attorneys are more or less social than other human animals does not matter. My point is simply that lawyers are social beings; like other human beings in social and occupational groups, lawyers behave largely in accordance with group norms, in much the same way peer pressure led Julian English toward juvenile delinquency in …

The Arkansas Supreme Court And The Civil War, L. Scott Stafford

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Justice Without Justices, John O. Mcginnis

Articles

No abstract provided.

A More Complete Look At Complexity, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The ability of courts to successfully resolve complex cases has been a matter of contentious debate, not only for the last quarter-century, but for most of the twentieth century. This debate has been part of the legal landscape at least since Judge Jerome Frank's polemic book from which this Symposium derives its title, and probably since Roscoe Pound's famous address to the American Bar Association. During the 1980s and 1990s in particular, the battlelines of the pro-and anti-court debate have been brightly drawn. Some commentators, most reliably successful plaintiffs' counsel and politically liberal academics, defend the judicial track record in …

Justices At Work: An Introduction, Michel Rosenfeld

Cardozo Law Review

"Justices at Work," a day long conference which took place on September 19, 1995 at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, brought together Justices and constitutional scholars from seven different countries to consider a hypothetical constitutional case dealing with fundamental rights. This issue of the Law Review includes the facts of the hypothetical case, the applicable hypothetical statute, the briefs submitted to the International Moot Courtall of which were the product of a collaborative effort among the seven scholars involved-as well as a transcript of the proceedings and of the deliberations of the seven Justices: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg …

Things Judges Do: State Statutory Interpretation, Judith S. Kaye

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pragmatism And Law: A Response To David Luban, Richard Rorty

Cardozo Law Review

Judge Posner's "Pragmatic Adjudication" is enormously refreshing. It cuts through an immense amount of tiresome and pointless talk about "the nature of law" and "the relation of law to politics" and gets down to the question: how should appellate court judges in a particular country at a particular time do their work? It not only argues lucidly for a particular answer to that question, but it also gives a good sense of what it must be like to be in Judge Posner's shoes. Posner helps you understand what sorts of things judges have to worry about, and what sorts of …

Framing The Issues For Cameras In The Courtrooms: Redefining Judicial Dignity And Decorum, A Wayne Mackay

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article examines the role of s. 2(b) of the Charter of Rights in determining the role of cameras in Canadian courtrooms. The discussions reveal that arguments in opposition to cameras are largely unfounded and in contradiction to the freedom of expression guarantee. The denial of the right is in reality based on judges' and lawyers' fear of loss of control of the courtroom environment. Cameras should only be banned from courtrooms as part of a total publication ban, and then only after a careful s. 1 analysis

Studying Deck Chairs On The Titanic, William L. Reynolds, William M. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Court And The Changing Constitution: A Discussion, Carl Sividorski, James Gardner, Barry Latzer, Peter Galie

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.