Burton M. Atkins

Party Capability Theory as an Explanation for Intervention Behavior in the English Court of Appeal

On the assumption that the theory and data used by social scientists to understand appellate courts in political systems are very much bound to the U.S. context and, hence, are not necessarily generalizable, this paper examines the role of the English Court of Appeal in the English judicial system. Party capability theory is the primary framework by which I explore the circumstances in which the Court of Appeal intervenes in decisions reached in lower forums by reversing and remanding appeals raised in civil cases. Bivariate and multivariate analyses are presented that examine the explanatory power of party capability theory in conjunction with other models that purport to explain the circumstances in which appellate courts intervene in lower court rulings. The paper concludes by examining the implications of party capability theory as a framework for understanding appellate courts cross-nationally.

Environmental and Structural Variables as Determinants of Issues in State Courts of Last Resort

The linkage between state socioeconomic and political environments and issues found in decisions of state courts of last resort is explored. It is found that, in general, state courts of last resort in rural, politically undifferentiated states tend to decide larger proportions of private litigation than courts within more highly industrialized, politically competitive states. These latter courts of last resort tend to focus upon criminal law, civil liberties, and economic regulation cases. Multiple regression analysis shows that the six environmental descriptors and one court system variable-the presence or absence of an intermediate appellate court-explain a substantial portion of the variance in the distribution of issues among the states. The study demonstrates that environmental variables are important predictors to the kinds of decisions rendered by courts, and underscores the need for more systematic, comparative analysis of state judicial systems. A considerable body of research published in the last several years has demonstrated the important effects of socioeconomic and political diversification upon political processes and policy outputs. (Dye, 1966; Sharkansky and Hofferbert, 1972). Yet little research has been conducted on the impact of environmental differences on judicial processes and policy. This is not to suggest, however, than the linkage between environmental conditions and courts has been totally ignored. On the contrary, most models of the judicial processes make some reference to this linkage, and the systems model in particular underscores the effects of the flow of demands and conflict from the environment towards the judicial system. (Sigler, 1968; Goldman and Jahnige, 1970). However, while reference is often made to these relationships, the literature is still devoid of empirical research that systematically examines the impact of environment upon judicial action. To remedy this omission, the present study will offer a comparative examination of the relationship between socioeconomic and political conditions within the fifty American states, on the one hand, and issues decided by state courts of last resort on

Formal Judicial Recruitment and State Supreme Court Decisions

a system of selection within the state legislature, while still others utilize either a partisan or nonpartisan election. Finally, a movement has emerged in the past few decades which blends aspects of the election and appointment systems. Under the Missouri Plan, named for the state in which it was first adopted, the governor selects supreme court judges from a list of nominees compiled by a committee of legal and nonlegal community leaders. These appointed judges must subsequently run for reelection on their record at some specified time in the future and must continue to do so for the remainder of their

Alternative Models of Appeal Mobilization in Judicial Hierarchies

Since agenda choices of courts set the parameters of decisions on the merits, political scientists have focused more attention in recent years on the process by which judicial agenda choices are made. This paper examines the agenda process by considering the factors affecting the mobilization of appeals from the intermediate to final appellate levels in the English judicial system. Two models of agenda mobilization are evaluated in bivariate and multivariate formats. One posits that access to a court of last resort is one of the resources distributed by a legal system and that the ability to obtain an additional appeal is related to the relative capacity of litigants to compete in ajudicial system. The other focuses upon how an intermediate appellate court uses institutional rules and resources to encourage or dissuade litigants from seeking further appeal in the court of last resort. The multivariate analysis shows that agenda mobilization is primarily a function of institutional resources committed by the Court of Appeal and that the court at the intermediate level thus contributes in important ways to how appeals are mobilized in the court of last resort.

State Supreme Court Elections The Significance of Racial Cues

The literature on judicial elections in the United States is virtually unanimous in its assessment of voter interest and turnout; most studies show that judicial elections do not provide voters with the sort of salient cues that generate interest and participation in elections for positions on the bench. For this reason, the elections for seats on the Florida Supreme Court in 1976 provide an enlightening context for evaluating the effect of voter cues in low saliency elections. Those elections represented a quiet landmark in American electoral politics inasmuch as it was the first time since Reconstruction that a black had been elected to statewide office in the South. We use this context to evaluate the impact of a black candidate in drawing black voters to participate in an otherwise low-saliency judicial election. Our data, drawn from statewide sampling of Florida election precincts, show that voters in predominantly black precincts participated in substantially higher proportions in the race with a black candidate than they did in other races for the Supreme Court. We also explore the patterns of support for the black candidate in the context of circumstances that encourage or impede participation in low-saliency nonpartisan elections.

The Effect of a Black Candidate in Stimulating Voter Participation in Statewide Elections: A Note on a Quiet "Revolution" in Southern Politics

One issue that has attracted considerable attention in the political science literature concerns the magnitude of difference, if any, in the levels of electoral participation among black and white voters. Much literature assumes that blacks vote in lower proportions than do whites in the United States (Milbrath and Goel, 1977) and that this difference is particularly acute in the South (Matthews and Prothro, 1966). This propositions validity, based upon data collected in the 1950s and 1960s, has been made questionable, however, by more recent literature examining the black-lag hypothesis. Verba and Nie (1972), for example, found no significant

Probable causes for police corruption: Some theories

Theories and explanations of police corruption presented in recent social science literature are reviewed to develop a conceptual framework for future study of the problem. Theories of corruption due to individual failings, organizational deviance, cynicism, lack of deterrence, and the lack of consensus on victimless crimes and their effects, are discussed.

The Role of State Supreme Courts in the New Judicial Federalism

Figures and Tables Preface A Model of Supreme Court Performance Institutional Characteristics of State Supreme Courts The Justices The Work of Six Supreme Courts A Closer Look at Six Courts Conclusions Appendix Bibliography Index to Cases Subject Index