Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of The U.S. Courts Of Appeals In Legal Development: An Empirical Analysis, Rachael K. Hinkle

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

What are the causes and consequences of legal development? In recent years courts scholars have begun to address these broad and challenging questions, yet there is still much work to be done. The intermediate level of the federal court system: a.k.a., circuit courts) provides an institutional context replete with opportunities to extend our theoretical and empirical understanding of legal development. My dissertation takes advantage of these opportunities in three ways. First, I explore legal constraint by comparing citation to and treatment of circuit court precedents. A precedent is binding in its own circuit, but merely persuasive in other circuits. Consequently, …