The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.s. Courts of Appeals

Bowie, Jennifer Barnes/ Songer, Donald R./ Szmer, John

ISBN 10: 0813935997 / ISBN 13: 9780813935997

Published by Univ of Virginia Pr, 2014

About this Item

288 pages. 9.75x6.50x1.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-0813935997

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.s. Courts of Appeals
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813935997
• ISBN 13: 9780813935997
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.57 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

For most of their history, the U.S. courts of appeals have toiled in obscurity, well out of the limelight of political controversy. But as the number of appeals has increased dramatically, while the number of cases heard by the Supreme Court has remained the same, the courts of appeals have become the court of last resort for the vast majority of litigants. This enhanced status has been recognized by important political actors, and as a result, appointments to the courts of appeals have become more and more contentious since the 1990s. This combination of increasing political salience and increasing political controversy has led to the rise of serious empirical studies of the role of the courts of appeals in our legal and political system.

At once building on and contributing to this wave of scholarship, The View from the Bench and Chambers melds a series of quantitative analyses of judicial decisions with the perspectives gained from in-depth interviews with the judges and their law clerks. This multifaceted approach yields a level of insight beyond that provided by any previous work on appellate courts in the United States, making The View from the Bench and Chambers the most comprehensive and rich account of the operation of these courts to date.

About the Author

Jennifer Barnes Bowie is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond. Donald R. Songer, Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina, is author of The Transformation of the Supreme Court of Canada: An Empirical Examination. John Szmer is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.