[Introduction to] The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.S. Courts of Appeals

Authors

Jennifer Barnes Bowie, University of RichmondFollow
Donald R. Songer
John Szmer

Files

Description

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.

ISBN

9780813935997

Publication Date

2014

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

City

Charlottesville

Keywords

judicial descisions, U.S. appellate courts, legal system

School

School of Arts and Sciences

Department

Political Science

Disciplines

Political Science

Comments

Listen to Podcasts@Boatwright and hear Dr. Jennifer Barnes Bowie discuss The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Read the introduction to the book by clicking the Download button above.

Recommended Citation

Bowie, Jennifer B., Donald R. Songer, and John Szmer. The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014.