Statutory Construction in Federal Appellate Tax Cases: The Effect of Judges' Social Backgrounds and of Other Aspects of Litigation

48 Pages Posted: 30 Dec 2003

See all articles by Daniel M. Schneider

Daniel M. Schneider

Northern Illinois University - College of Law

Abstract

"Statutory Construction" examines the effect of judges' social backgrounds on the method of statutory construction used to justify decisions in a database of federal appellate tax cases. It concludes that social backgrounds have a modest effect. Relatively few descriptive statistics were statistically significant, as was also true of predictive statistics. Results regarding aspects of the case, such as the type of taxpayer (e.g., individual, business) or representation by a lawyer, were more robust. These results are consistent with earlier research by the author on the same topic, in a database of federal trial tax cases.

Keywords: Statutory construction, empirical, federal appeals, judges, social background, judges' social background

JEL Classification: H2, H1, H8, K2

Suggested Citation

Schneider, Daniel M., Statutory Construction in Federal Appellate Tax Cases: The Effect of Judges' Social Backgrounds and of Other Aspects of Litigation. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=467242 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.467242

Daniel M. Schneider (Contact Author)

Northern Illinois University - College of Law ( email )

Swen Parson Hall
DeKalb, IL 60115
United States
815-753-1560 (Phone)
815-753-9301 (Fax)

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