The Power of Precedent

The Power of Precedent PDF Author: Michael J. Gerhardt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199795797
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The author connects the vast social science data and legal scholarship to provide a wide-ranging assessment of precedent. He outlines the major issues in the continuing debates on the significance of precedent and evenly considers all sides.

The Power of Precedent

The Power of Precedent PDF Author: Michael J. Gerhardt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199795797
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The author connects the vast social science data and legal scholarship to provide a wide-ranging assessment of precedent. He outlines the major issues in the continuing debates on the significance of precedent and evenly considers all sides.

The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court

The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court PDF Author: Thomas G. Hansford
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691188041
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court offers an insightful and provocative analysis of the Supreme Court's most important task--shaping the law. Thomas Hansford and James Spriggs analyze a key aspect of legal change: the Court's interpretation or treatment of the precedents it has set in the past. Court decisions do not just resolve immediate disputes; they also set broader precedent. The meaning and scope of a precedent, however, can change significantly as the Court revisits it in future cases. The authors contend that these interpretations are driven by an interaction between policy goals and variations in the legal authoritativeness of precedent. From this premise, they build an explanation of the legal interpretation of precedent that yields novel predictions about the nature and timing of legal change. Hansford and Spriggs test their hypotheses by examining how the Court has interpreted the precedents it set between 1946 and 1999. This analysis provides compelling support for their argument, and demonstrates that the justices' ideological goals and the role of precedent are inextricably linked. The two prevailing, yet contradictory, views of precedent--that it acts either solely as a constraint, or as a "cloak" that never actually influences the Court--are incorrect. This book shows that while precedent can operate as a constraint on the justices' decisions, it also represents an opportunity to foster preferred societal outcomes.

Settled Versus Right

Settled Versus Right PDF Author: Randy J. Kozel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110712753X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
This book analyzes the theoretical nuances and practical implications of how judges use precedent.

Corrupted by Power

Corrupted by Power PDF Author: Robert Riggs
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595325009
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Alexander Hamilton called the judiciary the "least dangerous" branch of government. He was right then but wrong today. Since Hamilton's time the Supreme Court has become a cardinal example of Lord Acton's famous dictum: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is not a corruption of bribes, or even of bad intentions, but of taking upon itself the right to alter the Constitution whenever past principles offend present preferences of five or more Justices. Corrupted by Power shows how the Constitution is repeatedly changed to mean whatever the Supreme Court wants it to mean. Precedent is followed only when past decisions support current opinions. Otherwise precedents are overruled, misrepresented or ignored. A conspicuous example is the judicial manufacture of new First Amendment rights, including rights to advocate criminal behavior, publish degrading sex and extreme violence, and advertise vice. Can the Constitution be rescued? Discover what can be done.

Power and Precedent

Power and Precedent PDF Author: Jan G. Deutsch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781600423352
Category : Judicial process
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
"This book defines law as applied politics and examines United States politics, a government created by Founders who did not believe political parties to be necessary. The book is a course whose lectures set out a jurisprudence applicable to civil and scientific as well as common law. The thesis of the course is that an understanding of the role of precedent in the common law explains both the human condition and what has happened to United States law since the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The use of questions and dialog within the course involves the reader in the development of a jurisprudence grounded in a philosophy of law."--Publisher's website.

Precedent in the United States Supreme Court

Precedent in the United States Supreme Court PDF Author: Christopher J. Peters
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400779518
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This volume presents a variety of both normative and descriptive perspectives on the use of precedent by the United States Supreme Court. It brings together a diverse group of American legal scholars, some of whom have been influenced by the Segal/Spaeth "attitudinal" model and some of whom have not. The group of contributors includes legal theorists and empiricists, constitutional lawyers and legal generalists, leading authorities and up-and-coming scholars. The book addresses questions such as how the Court establishes durable precedent, how the Court decides to overrule precedent, the effects of precedent on case selection, the scope of constitutional precedent, the influence of concurrences and dissents, and the normative foundations of constitutional precedent. Most of these questions have been addressed by the Court itself only obliquely, if at all. The volume will be valuable to readers both in the United States and abroad, particularly in light of ongoing debates over the role of precedent in civil-law nations and emerging legal systems.

Constitutionalism - Human Rights - Separation of Powers

Constitutionalism - Human Rights - Separation of Powers PDF Author: Georghios M. Pikis
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047410211
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Following 82 years of British rule, Cyprus emerged in 1960 as an independent state endowed with a written Constitution, detailed to the extent of making provision for nearly every aspect of government. Two distinct features of the Constitution are a) the incorporation of a comprehensive charter of human rights backed up by a duty cast on every authority of the State to ensure its efficient application and b) the strict separation between the three powers of the State. Another notable aspect of it is the introduction of judicial review of administrative action rendering justiciable every act, decision or omission of every organ, body or person exercising administrative or executive authority. The diversity of the sources of constitutional order, its detailed provisions about nearly every aspect of government convey a distinct complexion to the Constitution of the country. This book covers its application in the turbulent history of the island, which provides a singular if not a unique example of the sustenance of constitutional order in extreme circumstances; constitutionalism in full swing.

Precedents and Case-Based Reasoning in the European Court of Justice

Precedents and Case-Based Reasoning in the European Court of Justice PDF Author: Marc Jacob
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107045495
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Marc Jacob analyses in depth the most important justificatory and decision-making tool of one of the world's most powerful courts.

Precedents, Statutes, and Analysis of Legal Concepts

Precedents, Statutes, and Analysis of Legal Concepts PDF Author: Scott Brewer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135643024
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
At least since plato and Aristotle, thinkers have pondered the relationship between philosophical arguments and the "sophistical" arguments offered by the Sophists -- who were the first professional lawyers. Judges wield substantial political power, and the justifications they offer for their decisions are a vital means by which citizens can assess the legitimacy of how that power is exercised. However, to evaluate judicial justifications requires close attention to the method of reasoning behind decisions. This new collection illuminates and explains the political and moral importance in justifying the exercise of judicial power.

The Law of Judicial Precedent

The Law of Judicial Precedent PDF Author: Bryan A. Garner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780314634207
Category : Judicial process
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Law of Judicial Precedent is the first hornbook-style treatise on the doctrine of precedent in more than a century. It is the product of 13 distinguished coauthors, 12 of whom are appellate judges whose professional work requires them to deal with precedents daily. Together with their editor and coauthor, Bryan A. Garner, the judges have thoroughly researched and explored the many intricacies of the doctrine as it guides the work of American lawyers and judges. The treatise is organized into nine major topics, comprising 93 blackletter sections that elucidate all the major doctrines relating to how past decisions guide future ones in our common-law system. The authors' goal was to make the book theoretically sound, historically illuminating, and relentlessly practical. The breadth and depth of research involved in producing the book will be immediately apparent to anyone who browses its pages and glances over the footnotes: it would have been all but impossible for any single author to canvass the literature so comprehensively and then distill the concepts so cohesively into a single authoritative volume. More than 2,500 illustrative cases discussed or cited in the text illuminate the points covered in each section and demonstrate the law's development over several centuries. The cases are explained in a clear, commonsense way, making the book accessible to anyone seeking to understand the role of precedents in American law. Never before have so many eminent coauthors produced a single lawbook without signed sections, but instead writing with a single voice. Whether you are a judge, a lawyer, a law student, or even a nonlawyer curious about how our legal system works, you're sure to find enlightening, helpful, and sometimes surprising insights into our system of justice.