03679nam 2200589 a 450 991078615300332120230803025301.00-674-07068-20-674-06732-010.4159/harvard.9780674067325(CKB)2670000000330039(StDuBDS)AH25018186(SSID)ssj0000803480(PQKBManifestationID)11484503(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000803480(PQKBWorkID)10810561(PQKB)11145699(MiAaPQ)EBC3301188(DE-B1597)178053(OCoLC)819330020(OCoLC)840437326(DE-B1597)9780674067325(Au-PeEL)EBL3301188(CaPaEBR)ebr10642234(EXLCZ)99267000000033003920120229d2013 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrThe behavior of federal judges[electronic resource] a theoretical and empirical study of rational choice /Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, Richard A. PosnerCambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press20131 online resource (xv, 422 p. ) illFormerly CIP.Uk0-674-04989-6 Includes bibliographical references and index.A realistic theory of judicial behavior -- The previous empirical literature -- The Supreme Court -- The Courts of Appeals -- The district courts and the selection effect -- Dissents and dissent aversion -- The questioning of lawyers at oral argument -- The auditioners.Judges play a central role in the American legal system, but their behavior as decision makers is not well understood, even among themselves. The system permits judges to be quite secretive (and most of them are), so indirect methods are required to make sense of their behavior. Here, a political scientist, an economist, and a judge work together to construct a unified theory of judicial decision-making. Using statistical methods to test hypotheses, they dispel the mystery of how judicial decisions in district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court are made. The authors derive their hypotheses from a labor-market model, which allows them to consider judges as they would any other economic actors: as self-interested individuals motivated by both the pecuniary and non-pecuniary aspects of their work. In their view, this model describes judicial behavior better than either the traditional "legalist" theory, which sees judges as automatons who mechanically apply the law to the facts, or the current dominant theory in political science, which exaggerates the ideological component in judicial behavior. Ideology does figure into decision-making at all levels of the federal judiciary, the authors find, but its influence is not uniform. It diminishes as one moves down the judicial hierarchy from the Supreme Court to the courts of appeals to the district courts. As The Behavior of Federal Judges demonstrates, the good news is that ideology does not extinguish the influence of other components in judicial decision-making. Federal judges are not just robots or politicians in robes. Judicial processUnited StatesJudicial process347.73/14Epstein Lee1958-322967Landes William M255156Posner Richard A110175MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910786153003321The behavior of federal judges3847491UNINA