Modeling Collegial Courts (3): Judicial Objectives, Opinion Content, Voting and Adjudication Equilibria
34 Pages Posted: 10 Nov 2008 Last revised: 23 Nov 2008
Date Written: October 10, 2008
Abstract
We present a formal game theoretic model of adjudication by a collegial court. Distinctively, the model incorporates dispute resolution as well as judicial policy making and indicates the relationship between the two. It explicitly addresses joins, concurrences and dissents, and assumes judicial rather than legislative or electoral objectives by the actors. The model makes clear predictions about the plurality opinion's location in policy space; the case's disposition; and the size and composition of the disposition-coalition, the join-coalition, and the concurrence-coalition. These elements of adjudication equilibrium vary with the identity of the opinion writer and with the location of the case. In general, the opinion is not located at the ideal policy of the median judge. The model suggests new directions for empirical work on judicial politics.
Keywords: collegial courts, adjudiciation, judicial politics
JEL Classification: C72, D72, D79, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging
By Christina L. Boyd, Lee Epstein, ...
-
By Lee Epstein and Gary King
-
By Adam B. Cox and Thomas J. Miles
-
Decision-Making Under a Norm of Consensus: A Structural Analysis of Three-Judge Panels
-
Strategic Judicial Lawmaking: Ideology, Publication, and Asylum Law in the Ninth Circuit
By David S. Law
-
Do Judges Make Regulatory Policy?: An Empirical Investigation of Chevron
By Thomas J. Miles and Cass R. Sunstein
-
Do Judges Make Regulatory Policy? An Empirical Investigation of 'Chevron'
By Thomas J. Miles and Cass R. Sunstein
-
Judicial Hostility Toward Labor Unions? Applying the Social Background Model to a Celebrated Concern
By James J. Brudney, Sara Schiavoni, ...
-
What Is Judicial Ideology, and How Should We Measure It?
By Joshua B. Fischman and David S. Law