Kornhauser, Lewis A. --- "Judicial Organization and Administration" [2012] ELECD 99; 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 11

Section Title: Judicial Organization and Administration

Author(s): Kornhauser, Lewis A.

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

11 Judicial organization and administration
Lewis A. Kornhauser


1. Introduction
Economic analysis of substantive legal rules generally suppresses the adju-
dication 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 understand-
ing 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 imple-
mented through a set of central legal institutions that vary across time and
jurisdiction.
Two distinct but related sets of questions about adjudication arise. First,
what explains the structure of and variation among observed adjudicatory
institutions? Court systems throughout the world and across time exhibit
a number of similarities and differences. They are generally hierarchical,
with appellate courts generally collegial. On the other hand, we observe
variation in the selection, tenure, and dismissal practices across systems,
differences in the degree of specialization, and differences in the nature
of judicial output. Second, what explains the behavior of judges within a
given court structure? Answers to this second set of questions, of course,
will vary with the structure of the courts. After all, judges like other agents
will respond to the incentives created by institutions. Moreover, different
court systems require different behaviors from judges.
A vast literature in political science, economics, psychology, sociology
and law have addressed these two sets ...