Social Interactions and the Content of Legal Opinions

We explore the forces that determine rulings and citations within a court. Our model predicts: (1) that the presence of a social interaction between a judicial panel i and the authors of a prior judgement j increases the probability that i reaches the same decision as j and that i cites j as a persu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of law, economics, & organization economics, & organization, 2013-02, Vol.29 (1), p.78-114
Main Authors: i Vidal, Jordi Blanes, Leaver, Clare
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appellate courts
Authority
Citation analysis
Court decisions
Courts
Judgement
Judges
Judgments
Judicial process
Legal citations
Legal evidence
Litigants
Litigation
P values
Prior convictions
Probability
Secondary legal authorities
Signals
Social interaction
State court decisions
Studies
Western Europe
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Summary:We explore the forces that determine rulings and citations within a court. Our model predicts: (1) that the presence of a social interaction between a judicial panel i and the authors of a prior judgement j increases the probability that i reaches the same decision as j and that i cites j as a persuasive authority and (2) that the presence of a political litigant in case i increases the probability that i cites j. Data from the English Court of Appeal confirm that an appeal panel i randomly assigned to work with the authors of a prior dismissal j are more likely to dismiss case i and cite the prior dismissal j as a persuasive authority than an appeal panel without such contact. These effects are stronger when panel i is more experienced and when all the authors of the prior judgement j face the prospect of promotion.
ISSN:8756-6222
1465-7341
DOI:10.1093/jleo/ews013