Essays
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Judicial Independence - Clark, Tom S.
For analytic clarity, judicial independence is best thought of as a concept that captures a variety of features of a judicial system. One common, and useful, approach is to associate judicial independence with the ability of judges to, in practice, make decisions the outcomes of which are not dictated by extrajudicial pressures. In this spirit, research on judicial independence has examined a number of topics, two of which are (i) the origins and determinants of political support for the judiciary and (ii) the consequences of maintaining judicial independence for economic performance. Original research on political support for the judiciary focused on how a system of separation of powers can constrain judicial independence. Current research is turning the question around, examining the role courts play as a component of a system in which policy is made collectively by political institutions. Research on the relationship between judicial independence and economic performance originally examined whether greater judicial independence is associated with higher levels of economic growth. Current research is expanding the focus to evaluate the conditions under which independent courts reinforce the stability of democratic government. As research on judicial independence moves forward, it should focus on further conceptual clarification, the study of independent courts as complements to other parts of a system of governance (rather than competitors to policy makers), and leveraging current advances for theoretically driven measurement of these concepts. -
Lawmaking - Carson, Jamie L.
The goal of this essay is to present foundational and cutting‐edge research that has influenced how researchers study the lawmaking process within American politics. By assessing the most influential research on legislative politics to date, we are able to highlight the research that is moving the discipline forward. Specifically, we focus not only on the outcomes produced by the lawmaking process but also the institutional influences that shape what ultimately becomes law. Our discussion outlines how institutional rules and procedural context are important considerations in determining how legislative chambers and the executive interact to govern and create new laws. This is especially important as the polarization among the public and political elites continues to grow and reflects fluctuations in party divisions during the past century. These changes in the political context of each institution have created challenges in the lawmaking process, necessitating new and unorthodox procedures to deal with these difficulties as they arise. We also provide guidance in discussing new questions, which have not yet been fully addressed by scholars to date, as well as where to look for new sources of data that will help researchers begin to find answers to those questions. We believe that expanding upon existing research agendas will provide greater opportunities to learn more about the important role of both chambers and the executive in designing and implementing legislation. -
Restoring Racial Justice - Davis, Fania E.
Despite important overlapping interests, until recently, few racial justice advocates have embraced restorative justice (RJ), and the RJ community has largely failed to explicitly address race. Suggesting a convergence of the two movements, this essay presents an overview of RJ principles, history, and methods. We review the evidence for racial bias in criminal justice and school discipline and then note emerging restorative initiatives to ameliorate historical and contemporary racial inequities. We conclude by touching on gaps and challenges characterizing research and applied work in the field while suggesting strategies to move toward a racially‐conscious restorative movement as both an effective alternative to state‐imposed punishment and a powerful force for racial justice. -
Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights - Renteln, Alison Dundes
Sensational jurisprudence is a new branch of sociolegal studies that deals with the five senses and public policy. Because the law privileges the visual, this essay examines social science research about images of suffering and the implications of these findings. The interdisciplinary scholarship about visual culture emphasizes the negative aspects of humanitarian appeals for funding to aid the distant sufferer, and it suggests that bombarding the public with graphic depictions of pitiable individuals is counterproductive. Instead, researchers ought to develop methodologies to ascertain which emotions motivate individuals to engage in global civic action. -
The Evolving View of the Law and Judicial Decision‐Making - D'Elia‐Kueper, Justine
Attitudinalists and legal realists initially saw the law, not as something that constrained judges, but rather as a nuisance that judges could easily avoid in order to make decisions consistent with their personal policy preferences. As the study of law and judicial decision‐making has evolved, however, scholars are beginning to realize that judges may actually use the law to help them secure their most favored outcomes (Bueno de Mesquita & Stephenson, 2002; Hansford & Spriggs, 2006). As scholarship on the law and judicial decision‐making continues to evolve a key issue going forward will be how to measure the law. Text‐based analysis and citation analysis are promising new approaches in this regard.