Judicial Organization and Administration
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Description
This chapter surveys the economic literature on the functions and structure of courts. Issues concerning appellate courts and collegiality are addressed in a companion chapter. Economic analyses of substantive legal rules generally suppress the adjudication of factual and legal disputes that a legal rule might engender. The nature of adjudication, however, will influence greatly both the content of the substantive law and the costs of dispute resolution. An understanding of the structure of adjudication is thus central to an understanding of the effects of legal rules on behavior and on the identification of socially desirable legal rules. In addition, adjudication is a complex task implemented through institutions that vary across time and jurisdiction. The structure of adjudication and questions of judicial organization and administration thus present a rich field of study in their own right. These two approaches to the study of judicial organization raise different, though equally interesting, questions. As yet, no unitary theory has developed to explain the structure of adjudication. The initial economic analyses of these institutions have raised several important questions: (1) What are the functions of adjudication? (2) Why is adjudication public rather than private? (3) Should there be only one system of courts or should there be many? (4) What is the relation among courts, legislature and executive? (5) How do we explain the organizational features of courts such as their jurisdiction and their hierarchical relation? The questions presented by judicial organization and administration are contiguous with those presented by appeal and supreme courts. I adopt a somewhat arbitrary division of topics and relegate discussions of the reasons for appeal, explanations of hierarchy and collegiality to Chapter 7200 Appeal and Supreme Courts.
Source Publication
Encyclopedia of Law and Economics
Source Editors/Authors
Boudewijn Bouckaert, Gerrit de Geest
Publication Date
2000
Edition
1
Volume Number
5: The Economics of Crime and Litigation
Recommended Citation
Kornhauser, Lewis A., "Judicial Organization and Administration" (2000). Faculty Chapters. 1036.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1036
