From local trial courts to the United States Supreme Court, judges' decisions affect the fates
of individual litigants and the fate of the nation as a whole. Scholars have long discussed …

The last century has seen little change in the conduct of litigation before the United States
Supreme Court. The Court's familiar procedures-the October Term, the opening-answering …

One hundred forty books, articles, dissertations, and conference papers are identified in the
legal and political science literatures between 1959 and 1998 reporting empirical research …

The US Supreme Court is a public policy battleground in which organized interests attempt
to etch their economic, legal, and political preferences into law through the filing of amicus …

In this paper, we explore linkages between electoral politics and judicial voting behavior in
the context of models that take into account personal, contextual, institutional, and case …

The premise of this paper is that while the comparative study of courts can address some
vitally important questions in judicial politics, these gains will not be secured without a valid …

Independent courts render current policy more durable (by raising the cost of future policy
changes) but may also engage in policy-making of their own. This paper asks: Is there an …

This study shows that the political preferences of those responsible for retaining judges are
strongly associated with judicial voting. The evidence supports the widespread belief that …

There is widespread agreement that an independent judiciary is crucial to the growth of a
nation. Yet systematic analysis of the development of independent courts is difficult …

While recent research has improved dramatically our understanding of appellate judicial
behavior in constitutional and criminal law, we know comparatively little about the majority of …