Analogical Legal Reasoning: Theory and Evidence
American Law and Economics Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 160-191, 2015.
35 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2012 Last revised: 17 Jul 2015
Date Written: March 10, 2014
Abstract
The paper offers a formal model of analogical legal reasoning and takes the model to data. Under the model, the outcome of a new case is a weighted average of the outcomes of prior cases. The weights capture precedential influence and depend on fact similarity (distance in fact space) and precedential authority (position in the judicial hierarchy). The empirical analysis suggests that the model is a plausible model for the time series of U.S. maritime salvage cases. Moreover, the results evince that prior cases decided by inferior courts have less influence than prior cases decided by superior courts.
Keywords: analogical legal reasoning, case-based decision theory, empirical similarity, jurisprudence
JEL Classification: K00, K10, K49
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation