Do Women Judges Make a Difference? An Analysis by Appeal Court Data

1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter McCormick ◽  
Twyla Job
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women Judges ◽  
Appeal Court ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
General Statistical ◽  
Court Of Appeal

AbstractGiven the recent penetration of the judicial profession by women, and concomitant speculation about the possible impact of women judges upon judicial decision-making, the authors examine criminal appeals to the Alberta Court of Appeal between 1985 and 1992 to address in general statistical terms the parameters of the participation of women judges. The results suggest that there is little statistically identifiable difference in the performance of men and women judges, even on specific issues such as sexual assault offenses, and what modest differences can be found are in the opposite direction from those suggested by comparable research in the United States

Unifying the field of comparative judicial politics: towards a general theory of judicial behaviour

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Dyevre
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Judicial Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Convergence Trend

The field of judicial politics had long been neglected by political scientists outside the United States. But the past 20 years have witnessed considerable change. There is now a large body of scholarship on European courts and judges. In addition, judicial politics is on its way to become a sub-field of comparative politics in its own right. Examining the models used in the literature, this article suggests that this geographical convergence is also bringing about theoretical convergence. One manifestation of theoretical convergence is that models of judicial decision-making once deemed inapplicable in Europe are now used in studies of European courts too. But the convergence trend goes further. What we already know about judges and the contexts in which they operate suggests a way of reconciling the various attitudinal and institutionalist approaches used by scholars on both sides of the Atlantic within a general, unifying theory of judicial behaviour. The emerging theory provides a framework to assess the weight and interactions of a wide range of determinants of judicial decision-making across countries and legal systems.

scholarly journals Does Patronage Matter? Connecting Influences on Judicial Appointments with Judicial Decision Making

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Hausegger ◽  
Troy Riddell ◽  
Matthew Hennigar
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Professional Background ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
Unique Measure ◽  
Court Of Appeal

Abstract.The federal government's power to appoint judges has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. While many suggest that partisan affiliation, gender and professional background may be influencing the Canadian appointment process, and some have called into question the fairness of such influences, little attention has been directed at determining whether these characteristics influence the outcome of cases. This paper studies decisions made by the Ontario Court of Appeal between 1990 and 2003 and uses a unique measure of partisan affiliation in an attempt to answer the question: do characteristics which play a role in the appointment process influence judicial decision making.Résumé.Ces dernières années ont vu une augmentation de l'attention donné à l'autorité du gouvernement fédéral en ce qui concerne la nomination judiciaire. Il y en a plusieurs qui suggèrent que l'affiliation partisan, le sexe, et l'expérience professionnelle des candidats judiciaires sont tous des caractéristiques qui peuvent influencer la procédure de nomination. Encore d'autres ont remis en question l'équité d'un choix basé sur ces influences. Cependant, la question qui n'a pas reçu beaucoup d'attention jusqu'à maintenant est si ces caractéristiques influencent le résultat des affaires juridiques. L'article qui suit examine les décisions rendu par le Cour d'appel de l'Ontario entre les années 1990 et 2003, employant une mesure unique d'affiliation partisan, avec le but de répondre à la question : Est-ce que les caractéristiques qui peuvent jouer un rôle dans la procédure de nomination influencent les décisions judiciaires?

Using Process Theory to Explain Judicial Decision Making.

1986 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 57-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Baar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Judicial Studies ◽  
Canadian Research

This article is part of an effort to place current research on the Canadian judicial process into a broader theoretical context. This effort developed first from a sense that the legal and behavioural frameworks that have dominated the explanation of judicial decision making in the United States Supreme Court obscure more than they illuminate about judicial decision making in Canada; and second from the realization that the most illuminating American studies — those that trace the process by which major cases are brought before the courts and decided — are seen as interesting but atheoretical, as journalism not science. Perhaps our theory is out of joint. And perhaps an effort to understand how American theories and research on judicial decision making can inform Canadian research may be instructive both to American judicial studies and to the work of those outside the United States who are continually tugged toward American approaches that promise liberation from traditional legal analysis.

The Judicial Resolution of Disputes Involving Children and Religion

1998 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Mumford
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
English Court ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Court Of Appeal

Within the past few years, the English Court of Appeal has ruled in a variety of cases involving disputes about the religious upbringing of children following the separation or divorce of their parents. Many of these cases have not been reported, although the most significant of them, Re R, is well known to family lawyers. In other jurisdictions the European Court of Human Rights in Hoffmann and the Supreme Court of Canada in Young and D.P. v. C.S. have also heard important cases in which a significant factor before the court was the influence of religious beliefs and practices on the children of those who professed them. This article is the result of a study of these and other cases from England, the United States and Canada in order to investigate the reasoning and the trends in judicial decision-making in cases involving children and religion.

Commitment and Cooperation on High Courts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Alarie ◽  
Andrew J. Green
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Institutional Differences ◽  
The Impact

Judicial decision-making is ideally impartial. In reality, judges are influenced by many different factors, including institutional context, ideological commitment, fellow justices on a panel, and personal preferences. Empirical literature in this area increasingly analyzes this complex collection of factors in isolation, when a larger sample size of comparative institutional contexts can help assess the impact of the procedures, norms, and rules on key institutional decisions, such as how appeals are decided. This book explains how the answers to the following institutional questions largely determine the influence of political preferences of individual judges and the degree of cooperation among judges at a given point in time. Who decides how judicial appointments are made? How does an appeal reach the court; what processes occur? Who is before the court; how do the characteristics of the litigants and third parties affect judicial decision-making? How does the court decide the appeal; what institutional norms and strategic behaviors do the judges follow in obtaining their preferred outcome? The authors apply these four fundamental institutional questions to empirical work on the supreme courts of the United States, UK, Canada, India, and the High Court of Australia. The ultimate purpose of this book is to promote a deeper understanding of how institutional differences affect judicial decision-making, using empirical studies of supreme courts in countries with similar basic structures but with sufficient differences to enable meaningful comparison.

Precedents and Chinese Judges: An Experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Zhuang Liu ◽  
Lars Klöhn ◽  
Holger Spamann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Real World ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Time Reading

Abstract We experimentally study the decision-making process of judges in China, where judges are specifically prohibited from citing prior decisions as the basis for their judgments, and where, in past surveys, most judges explicitly stated that precedent played at most a marginal role in their decisions. In an experiment resembling real-world judicial decision making, we find, however, that precedent seems to have a significant influence on the decisions of the participating Chinese judges. Indeed, judges spend more time reading prior cases than statutes, and they typically read precedents before they access the statutes. On the other hand, judges rarely mention the precedent in their reasons. Our findings suggest that the Chinese judiciary operates much more similarly to its homologues in the United States and elsewhere than their written opinions and much folklore would suggest.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document