Appeal and Supreme Courts
Files
Description
This chapter surveys the economic literature on judicial appeals and collegiality of courts. More general issues concerning judicial administration and court organization are surveyed in a companion chapter. This chapter reviews the literature concerning several issues raised in the economic analysis of appeal and of supreme courts. These issues overlap those considered in Chapter 7100 [Lewis A. Kornhauser's preceding chapter "Judicial Organization and Administration], Judicial Organization and Administration. Appellate courts in general and supreme courts in particular exist only in hierarchically organized court systems. Most of the literature has focused on courts in common law countries. Indeed, most models that extend beyond the simplest features of adjudication do so in the context of the political system of the United States. This review consequently shares the parochial focus of the literature. Analyses of appeal in civil law systems and in the context of different political systems would greatly advance understanding of the subject as they often present different institutional features. At least some civil law systems, for example, allow an appellate court to make an independent assessment of the facts of the case, a judgment denied common law courts. Similarly, the highest courts in some civil law jurisdictions hear substantially more cases than the highest courts in common law countries, a fact that may explain, or be explained by, differences in precedential practice and in the style and content of judicial opinions.
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., "Appeal and Supreme Courts" (2000). Faculty Chapters. 1037.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1037
