Kornhauser, Lewis A. --- "Appeal and Supreme Courts" [2012] ELECD 90; in Sanchirico, William Chris (ed), "Procedural Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Procedural Law and Economics

Editor(s): Sanchirico, William Chris

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847208248

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Appeal and Supreme Courts

Author(s): Kornhauser, Lewis A.

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

2 Appeal and supreme courts
Lewis A. Kornhauser


1. Introduction
This chapter reviews the literature concerning several issues raised in
the economic analysis of appeal and of supreme courts. These issues
overlap with those considered in Chapter 11: "Judicial Organization and
Administration". The overlap occurs in many dimensions. Most obvi-
ously, appeal constitutes an important dimension of judicial organization
and administration. Appeal itself can be organized in a variety of dif-
ferent ways. This review thus addresses a variety of questions about the
organization of appeal. Does the court system permit appeal? Should it
permit appeal? Why do some systems permit appeal, while others do not?
Assuming that a judicial system permits appeal, how many appeals is or
should a litigant be permitted? How should appeal be organized? Should
there be distinct appellate courts? Or should appeal be taken to another
court at the same level? How many judges should hear an appeal? To
what extent should appellate courts control their own docket? The legal-
economic answers to these organizational questions are surveyed here.
Second, this chapter reviews the vast literature on how appellate
judges behave. What explains how judges decide cases? Can we explain
the precedential practices invoked by common law courts or by civil law
courts? Do lower court judges comply with the rulings of higher courts?
What explains the content of the opinions written by judges? When courts
control their own jurisdiction, can we explain the set of cases chosen for
review? This behavior, of course, will ...