Do the judges create law?

Judges and Legislature: Values into Law

The legislature gives effect to the values of democracy and compromise in a pluralist society, but the legislation it produces is mediated in its application by the values inherent in the legal culture into which it is received. The judges complete the law promulgated by Parliament by applying it. In articulating the common law also, the judges act within the bounds of objective standards suppl...

Are Judges Morally Obligated to Apply the Law?

Brazilian abortion law: the opinion of judges and prosecutors.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the opinion of judges and prosecutors concerning Brazilian abortion law and situations in which the abortion should be allowed. METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed with 1,493 judges and 2,614 prosecutors in Brazil between 2005 and 2006. Participants completed a structured questionnaire approaching sociodemographic characteristics, opinions about abortion law, an...

How do judges learn from precedent?

Federal appellate judges cite cases by sister circuits. Why is that? Common wisdom holds that judges look to out-of-circuit cases for credible legal arguments -as persuasive precedent. But hard-core adherents of the attitudinal model (Segal and Spaeth 2002) – and certain cynical realists and critical legal studies scholars – might argue that judges decide in accordance with their policy or poli...

Do Brazilian Judges Favor the Weak Party?1

This article discusses the theoretical foundations of the concept of jurisdictional uncertainty, which means, the uncertainties associated to the settlement of contracts in the Brazilian jurisdiction, and that manifests itself predominantly as an anti-saver and anti-creditor bias. According to Arida et al (2005), Brazilian judges tend to favor the weak part in the claim, not the just, as a form...