Professor Dr. Yonatan Lupu of George Washington University and Professor Dr. James H. Fowler of the University of California San Diego, have published Strategic Citations to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court , Journal of Legal Studies , 42, 151-186 (2013).

Here is the abstract:

Common law evolves not only through the outcomes of cases but also through the reasoning and citations to precedent employed in judicial opinions. We focus on citations to precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court. We demonstrate how strategic interaction between justices during the Court’s bargaining process affects citations to precedent in the Court’s opinion. We find that the majority-opinion writer relies more heavily on precedent when the Court’s decision is accompanied by separate opinions. We also show that diversity of opinion on the Court, a factor often overlooked, has a significant relationship with citations to precedent. Finally, our results indicate that the ideology of the median justice influences citation practices more than ideology of the majority-opinion writer.

HT Dan Katz

Filed under: Applications, Research findings Tagged: Citation analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Court decisions, Empirical methods in legal communication studies, Empirical methods in legal informatics, Influences on judges' legal citation practices, Influences on legal citation practices, James Fowler, James H. Fowler, Journal of Legal Studies, Judicial communication, Legal citation analysis, Legal citation practices, Legal citation studies, Legal citations, Legal citations in court decisions, Legal communication, Yonatan Lupu



via Legal Informatics Blog http://ift.tt/1fVWJrZ