Strategic Bargaining on the United States Courts of Appeals

Abstract:     
We employ never before used archival data to provide the first, systematic examination of the conditions under which federal circuit court judges craft legal opinions. Examining every private record maintained by former D.C. Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1962-1988), we analyze judges' private responses to opinion drafts, as well as the conditions under which opinion authors accommodate their colleagues' suggested changes. Our results provide strong support for ideological, contextual, and institutional components to the development of law. These results further highlight the need for additional archival research on these important policymaking courts.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 34

Keywords: circuit courts of appeals, strategic, archival

working papers series