The relationship between de jure and de facto judicial independence is much debated in the literature. Some studies find no relationship between the formal rules governing the structure of the judiciary and its de facto independence. Other studies find a significant correlation between de jure and de facto judicial independence, with one study even touting de jure judicial independence as the m...

The traditional view that inter-branch judicial independence is a necessary condition for high levels of foreign direct investment is flawed because it neglects to consider the significance of the autonomy of judges from societal actors as a distinct factor. Separating these two aspects of judicial independence and then interacting them produces four “judicial regime types”: the Liberal, Partis...

This thesis examines the relationship between contested judicial elections and the value of total damages in product liability trials. For years, legal scholars have argued that judicial elections pose a direct threat to a judge's impartiality, but this thesis is one of only a few studies to observe judicial elections' quantitative effects on the application of law. Narrowing the focus of this ...

While the performance evaluation of judges has become a ubiquitous aspect of modern judicial administration, evaluation mechanisms of are too often utilised uncritically, without reflection on why we evaluate judges, and how ‘measurement’ furthers these objectives. This article provides a conceptual analysis of the role and purpose of performance evaluation, conceiving it as a limited tool of j...

Over the past two decades, numerous suits for damages have been brought against physicians for the injury of wrongful life, or wrongful birth. Within the past 5 years, several precedents have been set that broaden the physician's legal obligation to recognize and act upon foreseeable or potentially recurrent genetic, teratogenic, or chromosomal disorders. These precedents may be expected to aff...

Why do policy-motivated justices conform to unfavorable precedents? This article suggests that two theories, social-legal backgrounds and precedential characteristics, help explain why justices support unfavorable precedents. To test the explanatory power of these theories, the article uses data from the 1953-94 terms that ascertains whether justices cast precedential votes. The results, after ...

Judicial independence is an idea that has both internal (or normative) and external (or institutional) aspects. From a normative viewpoint, judges should be autonomous moral agents, who can be relied on to carry out their public duties independent of venal or ideological considerations. Independence, or impartiality, in this sense is a desirable aspect of a judge’s character. But judges are hum...

O amplamente difundido e cada vez mais desenvolvido direito das mudancas climaticas, tem levado tambem a um incremento do numero de litigios em esfera judicial, administrativa, arbitral, seja no plano interno dos Estados, âmbito internacional publico privado. Nesse sentido, analise casos concretos, luz precedentes judiciais nao se revela fundamental, porquanto necessaria ao desenvolvimento, tan...

The use of multimedia data has expanded into many domains and applications beyond technical usage, such as surveillance, home monitoring, health supervision, judicial applications. This work is concerned with the application of video processing techniques to judicial trials in order to extract useful information from them. The automated processing of the large amounts of digital data generated ...