Journal Articles

Scope and precedent: judicial rule-making under uncertainty

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I develop a formal model of Supreme Court opinion-writing in an environment of uncertainty. In
particular, the model captures how the Supreme Court will optimally design the specificity of its
legal rules. The model focuses on the tradeoff between more precise rules which are controlling
in a smaller subset of cases against less precise rules, which have wider applicability but yield
less certain outcomes. When the basic model is considered in a dynamic world in which the
Court is able to hear multiple cases, it yields insights about how the factual representativeness of
a case and the clarity of existing precedent jointly affect its optimal opinion-writing and
willingness to hear new cases. These last implications provide theoretical foundations for
theoretical and empirical questions about rule-making, case selection, and the construction of
doctrine.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Journal of Theoretical Politics

Call Number

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Publisher

Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications., 2016

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0951-6298

Classification

NONE

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Volume 28, Issue 3, July 2016; pp. 353–384

Subject(s)

judicial rule making
juducial hierarchy
opinion writing

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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