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Research Handbook on Law and Courts
The Research Handbook on Law and Courts provides a systematic analysis of new work on courts as governing institutions. Authors consider how courts have taken on regulating fundamental categories of inclusion and exclusion, including citizenship rights. Courts’ centrality to governance is addressed in sections on judicial processes, sub-national courts, and political accountability, all analyzed in multiple legal/political systems. Other chapters turn to analyzing the worldwide push for diversity in staffing courts. Finally, the digitization of records changes both court processes and studying courts. Authors included in the Handbook discuss theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches to studying courts as governing institutions. They also identify promising areas of future research.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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This comprehensive Research Handbook offers a multi-faceted analysis of the politics of law and courts and their role in governing. The authors develop new theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches to the study of law and courts as institutions, while accounting for the increasing diversity and complexity of the jurisdictions they
oversee.
The Research Handbook on Law and Courts features contributions from leading scholars in the United States, New Zealand, South Africa, Latin America and a number of European countries, enriching the scope of theoretical development in the field and identifying areas for future research. Chapters address courts’ centrality to governance by explaining how they participate in holding democratic administrations politically accountable, as well as by highlighting the political significance of court decisions concerning citizenship and inclusion. Chapters include studies of interactions between legal arguments, courts and other institutions that rely on law, as well as reflections on the physical and digital spaces of law. This volume also examines demographic diversity in judging before concluding with discussions of increasing digitization and computing power, and the significance of both for legal processes and sociolegal scholarship.
Scholars concerned with courts and political accountability in complex, multi-layered governance will find this Research Handbook an invaluable resource. Since courts and legal structures are increasingly significant around the world, the Research Handbook will also be useful to other social scientists concerned with inclusion, representation, and accountability through law.
oversee.
The Research Handbook on Law and Courts features contributions from leading scholars in the United States, New Zealand, South Africa, Latin America and a number of European countries, enriching the scope of theoretical development in the field and identifying areas for future research. Chapters address courts’ centrality to governance by explaining how they participate in holding democratic administrations politically accountable, as well as by highlighting the political significance of court decisions concerning citizenship and inclusion. Chapters include studies of interactions between legal arguments, courts and other institutions that rely on law, as well as reflections on the physical and digital spaces of law. This volume also examines demographic diversity in judging before concluding with discussions of increasing digitization and computing power, and the significance of both for legal processes and sociolegal scholarship.
Scholars concerned with courts and political accountability in complex, multi-layered governance will find this Research Handbook an invaluable resource. Since courts and legal structures are increasingly significant around the world, the Research Handbook will also be useful to other social scientists concerned with inclusion, representation, and accountability through law.
Critical Acclaim
‘It''s a distinct pleasure to see a research handbook that not only deals with classic themes in the literature, but which marks out new terrain for researchers in many different juridical and political regimes. The section on the digitalization of law and courts research was an eye-opener for me.’
– Chris Hanretty, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
‘With a timely introduction followed by 32 chapters by no fewer than 50 established and early-career authors working in at least four continents, this Research Handbook represents today''s most outstanding, global, and diverse scholarship on law and courts. The Research Handbook on Law and Courts synthesizes new ways that law and courts scholars encounter and study accountability, authoritarianism, populism, citizenship, diversity, democracy, gender, governance, technology, and the transformative potential of rights.’
– Mark Fathi Massoud, University of California, Santa Cruz, US
‘This diverse collection highlights cutting-edge issues in scholarship on law and courts. Integrating comparative and international perspectives with forward-looking attention to technology and gender, there is something for everyone in these pages. Highly recommended.’
– Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago, US
– Chris Hanretty, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
‘With a timely introduction followed by 32 chapters by no fewer than 50 established and early-career authors working in at least four continents, this Research Handbook represents today''s most outstanding, global, and diverse scholarship on law and courts. The Research Handbook on Law and Courts synthesizes new ways that law and courts scholars encounter and study accountability, authoritarianism, populism, citizenship, diversity, democracy, gender, governance, technology, and the transformative potential of rights.’
– Mark Fathi Massoud, University of California, Santa Cruz, US
‘This diverse collection highlights cutting-edge issues in scholarship on law and courts. Integrating comparative and international perspectives with forward-looking attention to technology and gender, there is something for everyone in these pages. Highly recommended.’
– Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago, US
Contributors
Contributors: S. Achury, R.C. Black, J. Bowie, P. Branco, E. Chrun, R.Cichowski, P.M. Collins, A.L. Comstock, L. Conant, T.A. Curry, L. Da Ros, J.J. Dawuni, A. Diala, T.L. Dumas, M.C. Escobar-Lemmon, C. Hilson, V. Hoekstra, A. Hofmann, M. Ingram, G. Johnson, A.J. Kang, B.J. Kassow, M.C. Kittilson, T. Masengu, T.N. Means, J. Meernik, K. Moult, D. Moya, L. Moyer, L. Muñoz, K. Nieminen, J. Parent, A.M. Phillips, A.F. Ponce, K. Prado, R.A. Reid, L.A. Ringhand, J. Ríos-Figueroa, P. Robson, J. Rodger, E.C. Savchak, J.A. Schoenherr, S. Schorpp, U. Schultz, D. Soennecken, S.M. Sterett, M. Suresh, L. Tiede, L. Vanhala, L.D. Walker, J. Wedeking
Contents
Contents:
Introduction to the Research Handbook on Law and Courts
Susan Sterett and Lee Walker
PART I COURTS AND POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY
1. International Tribunals and Political Accountability
James Meernik
2. Degrees of Separation: judicial-executive relations in the US and Latin America
Gbemende Johnson
3. Comparing the Significance of War to High Courts of the USA, UK, and Canada
Susanne Schorpp
4. Drug Policy, Violence, and Support for the Judiciary in Latin America: The "Drug Trafficking Trap"
Aldo F. Ponce
5. Law, Courts and Populism: Climate Change Litigation and the Narrative Turn
Chris Hilson
6. Courts and Transformative Constitutionalism: insights from South Africa
Anthony Diala
PART II JUDICIAL PROCESS
7. Independence in Judicial Hierarchies: Civil Law Systems
Julio Rios-Figueroa
8. The Use of Precedent in U.S. Supreme Court Litigant Briefs
Jessica A. Schoeneherr and Ryan C. Black
9. Challenging authorities’ (in)action via amparos
Lydia Brashear Tiede and Susan Achury
10. Accountability, Authority and Documentary Fragility: Shadow files and Trial in India
Mayur Suresh
11. Court Architecture and the Justice System
Peter Robson, Patrícia Branco and Johnny Rodger
12. Institutional Norms, Parliament, and the Courts: Explaining the Absence of Abortion Restrictions in Canada
Jonathan Parent
PART III DIVERSITY
13. Gender on the International Bench
Laura P. Moyer
14. Appointing Women to High Courts
Maria Escobar-Lemmon, Valerie Hoekstra, Alice J. Kang, and Mikki Caul Kittilson
15. Judicial Service Commissions and the Appointment of Women to High Courts in Nigeria and Zambia
Jarpa J. Dawuni and Tabeth Masengu
16. Judicial Diversity in the United States Federal Judiciary
Taneshia N. Means, Kaitlin Prado, and Andrew Eslich
17. The gender and judging project: equity in Germany
Ulrike Schultz
PART IV SUB-NATIONAL COURTS
18. Power, activation, decision making, and impact: subnational judicial politics in Brazil
Luciano Da Ros and Matthew C. Ingram
19. Understanding the determinants of opinion language borrowing in state courts in the United States
Jennifer Bowie and Elisha C. Savchak
20. State High Courts and Precedent: the diffusion of precedent in the United States
Ben Kassow
21. Letting the Outside In? Court Clerks, Discretion and the Shifting Boundary between Community and Court in Domestic Violence Cases in South Africa
Kelley Moult
22. When do the Losers Win? Appellate Court Reversals of Civil Jury Verdicts
Tao Dumas
23. Creating Space for supranational law: Environmental Legal Mobilization and Spanish NGOs
Luz Muñoz and David Moya
PART V COURTS, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
24. Patrolling the Boundaries of Belonging? Courts, Law, and Citizenship
Lisa Conant, Andreas Hofmann, Dagmar Soennecken, and Lisa Vanhala
25. Conflicts in Indigenous Law: Courts and Federalism in the United States and Common Law Nations
Rebecca A. Reid and Todd A. Curry
26. Implicit and explicit boundaries of belonging: indigenous and minority identities
Kati Nieminen
27. Domestic legal institutions and international law: the UN Women’s Rights Treaty and the Netherlands
Audrey L. Comstock
PART VI DIGITALIZATION OF LAW AND COURTS RESEARCH
28. Creating Digital Legal Subjects: The Use of Online Criminal Court Records for Research
Sarah E. Lageson
29. All Your Data Will Be Held Against You: Secondary Use of Data from Personal Genomics & Wearable Tech
Andelka M. Phillips
30. Data Infrastructure Innovation in the Field of Law and Courts: The European Court of Human Rights Database (ECHRdb)
Elizabeth Chrun and Rachel Cichowski
31. ‘Text as Data’ in Law and Courts: Data Coding, Language Clarity, and Data Sharing
Justin Wedeking
32. Creating Databases in Sociolegal Research: The U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Database
Paul M. Collins, Jr. and Lori A. Ringhand
Index
Introduction to the Research Handbook on Law and Courts
Susan Sterett and Lee Walker
PART I COURTS AND POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY
1. International Tribunals and Political Accountability
James Meernik
2. Degrees of Separation: judicial-executive relations in the US and Latin America
Gbemende Johnson
3. Comparing the Significance of War to High Courts of the USA, UK, and Canada
Susanne Schorpp
4. Drug Policy, Violence, and Support for the Judiciary in Latin America: The "Drug Trafficking Trap"
Aldo F. Ponce
5. Law, Courts and Populism: Climate Change Litigation and the Narrative Turn
Chris Hilson
6. Courts and Transformative Constitutionalism: insights from South Africa
Anthony Diala
PART II JUDICIAL PROCESS
7. Independence in Judicial Hierarchies: Civil Law Systems
Julio Rios-Figueroa
8. The Use of Precedent in U.S. Supreme Court Litigant Briefs
Jessica A. Schoeneherr and Ryan C. Black
9. Challenging authorities’ (in)action via amparos
Lydia Brashear Tiede and Susan Achury
10. Accountability, Authority and Documentary Fragility: Shadow files and Trial in India
Mayur Suresh
11. Court Architecture and the Justice System
Peter Robson, Patrícia Branco and Johnny Rodger
12. Institutional Norms, Parliament, and the Courts: Explaining the Absence of Abortion Restrictions in Canada
Jonathan Parent
PART III DIVERSITY
13. Gender on the International Bench
Laura P. Moyer
14. Appointing Women to High Courts
Maria Escobar-Lemmon, Valerie Hoekstra, Alice J. Kang, and Mikki Caul Kittilson
15. Judicial Service Commissions and the Appointment of Women to High Courts in Nigeria and Zambia
Jarpa J. Dawuni and Tabeth Masengu
16. Judicial Diversity in the United States Federal Judiciary
Taneshia N. Means, Kaitlin Prado, and Andrew Eslich
17. The gender and judging project: equity in Germany
Ulrike Schultz
PART IV SUB-NATIONAL COURTS
18. Power, activation, decision making, and impact: subnational judicial politics in Brazil
Luciano Da Ros and Matthew C. Ingram
19. Understanding the determinants of opinion language borrowing in state courts in the United States
Jennifer Bowie and Elisha C. Savchak
20. State High Courts and Precedent: the diffusion of precedent in the United States
Ben Kassow
21. Letting the Outside In? Court Clerks, Discretion and the Shifting Boundary between Community and Court in Domestic Violence Cases in South Africa
Kelley Moult
22. When do the Losers Win? Appellate Court Reversals of Civil Jury Verdicts
Tao Dumas
23. Creating Space for supranational law: Environmental Legal Mobilization and Spanish NGOs
Luz Muñoz and David Moya
PART V COURTS, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
24. Patrolling the Boundaries of Belonging? Courts, Law, and Citizenship
Lisa Conant, Andreas Hofmann, Dagmar Soennecken, and Lisa Vanhala
25. Conflicts in Indigenous Law: Courts and Federalism in the United States and Common Law Nations
Rebecca A. Reid and Todd A. Curry
26. Implicit and explicit boundaries of belonging: indigenous and minority identities
Kati Nieminen
27. Domestic legal institutions and international law: the UN Women’s Rights Treaty and the Netherlands
Audrey L. Comstock
PART VI DIGITALIZATION OF LAW AND COURTS RESEARCH
28. Creating Digital Legal Subjects: The Use of Online Criminal Court Records for Research
Sarah E. Lageson
29. All Your Data Will Be Held Against You: Secondary Use of Data from Personal Genomics & Wearable Tech
Andelka M. Phillips
30. Data Infrastructure Innovation in the Field of Law and Courts: The European Court of Human Rights Database (ECHRdb)
Elizabeth Chrun and Rachel Cichowski
31. ‘Text as Data’ in Law and Courts: Data Coding, Language Clarity, and Data Sharing
Justin Wedeking
32. Creating Databases in Sociolegal Research: The U.S. Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Database
Paul M. Collins, Jr. and Lori A. Ringhand
Index
