Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

How does the language of legislative statutes affect judicial behavior? Scholars of the judiciary have rarely studied this question despite statutes being, theoretically, the primary opportunity for legislatures to ensure that those individuals who interpret the law will follow their preferences. In Checking the Courts, Kirk A. Randazzo and Richard W. Waterman offer a model that integrates ideological and legal factors through an empirical measure of statutory discretion. The model is tested across multiple judicial institutions, at both the federal and state levels, and reveals that judges are influenced by the levels of discretion afforded in the legislative statutes. In those cases where lawmakers have clear policy preferences, legislation encourages judges to strictly interpret the plain meaning of the law. Conversely, if policy preferences are unclear, legislation leaves open the possibility that judges will make decisions based on their own ideological policy preferences. Checking the Courts thus provides us with a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between law and ideology.

Judicial process --- Political questions and judicial power --- Constitutional law

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"This Research Handbook is a multi-faceted, comparative analysis of how law and political systems interact around the world. Chapters include analyses of judicial deference, congressional support, democratic representation, politicization of courts, public support, and judicialization across multiple jurisdictions in the United States and abroad. Chapters also investigate transnational courts and the linkages between international and domestic law and politics. Addressing these relationships from a comparative perspective, the Handbook illustrates how different political contexts lead to different uses of law and how courts respond to divergent political environments. An impressive array of contributors, and the editors, examine law and political systems on a global scale through either country-specific analyses, comparative analyses, or the examination of transnational institutions. Scholars interested in law and courts, judicial politics, the rule of law, and governance will find this Research Handbook to be a valuable resource. It will provide a helpful foundation for advanced students of both political science and law and will be a useful reference tool for judges and those operating in a judicial or political sphere"--

Comparative government. --- Law --- Political aspects.