Social Interactions and the Content of Legal Opinions

Jordi Blanes i Vidal and Clare Leaver

The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 2013, vol. 29, issue 1, 78-114

Abstract: We explore the forces that determine rulings and citations within a court. Our model predicts: (1) that the presence of a social interaction between a judicial panel i and the authors of a prior judgement j increases the probability that i reaches the same decision as j and that i cites j as a persuasive authority and (2) that the presence of a political litigant in case i increases the probability that i cites j. Data from the English Court of Appeal confirm that an appeal panel i randomly assigned to work with the authors of a prior dismissal j are more likely to dismiss case i and cite the prior dismissal j as a persuasive authority than an appeal panel without such contact. These effects are stronger when panel i is more experienced and when all the authors of the prior judgement j face the prospect of promotion. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2013
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