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Academic

: Legal Theory Blog

Shin on Causal & Evaluative Studies of Judging

By Lawrence Solum

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Patrick S. Shin (Suffolk University Law School) has posted Distinguishing Causal and Normative Questions in Empirical Studies of Judging (Duke Law Journal (online volume), Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In this essay, I raise a meta-theoretical question concerning the relation between two distinct categories of projects that we might be tempted to lump together under the rubric of empirical study of judicial performance. One kind of empirical project aims broadly at developing a social-scientific theory of judging, or identifying the ?causes? of legal decisions. Another kind of project aims at identifying quantitative criteria providing an objective basis for evaluating the quality of judicial performance. I attempt to explain the distinction between these two kinds of projects and consider whether the very possibility of success in the former undermines the point of the latter. Would a theory that could predict how any given judge would likely decide any given kind of case obviate the usefulness of general criteria for measuring judicial quality? I argue that the answer is no, because the two projects address fundamentally different questions. Recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on February 18, 2010 (boomark / email).

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