Seduction, Integration and Conceptual Frameworks

Abstract:     
One contribution to a symposium on the influence of scholarship on judges, this article argues that legal scholarship has an enormous influence on judges, but that this influence cannot be measured by direct citations of scholarly work in judicial decisions. Rather, scholarship exercises its primary influence by shaping the concepts on which judges rely. The article then illustrates this process by examining the concept of common law as it has evolved through American history. It traces the way that Blackstone, Legal Formalism, Legal Realism and now Empirical Legal Studies have shaped the way that judges think about common law, and how conceptual changes from one approach to another are reflected in changing approaches to common law and changing formulations of common law doctrine.

Keywords: Legal Scholarship, Judicial Decisionmaking, Judicial Attitudes, Judges

Accepted Paper Series