The Behavior of Federal Judges: A Theoretical & Empirical Study of Rational Choice
by Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, and Richard A. Posner (Harvard University Press, 422 pp.)
This book is an attempt by a political scientist (Epstein), an economist (Landes), and a judge (Posner) to employ statistical methods to understand how federal judges make their decisions. Are they machines who objectively apply the law to the facts set before them? Are they enrobed ideologues who use the bench to shape society to their ends? The authors provide “a unified theory of judicial decision-making” to make sense of what is actually going on in the process. There are separate chapters, each saturated with tables of data, on the Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and federal district courts.
Posted by Nick Sexton on Tue. December 18, 2012 10:12 AM
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