Conference Examines Behavior of Federal Judges

Prof. Lee Epstein's book is highlighted -By Gilien Silsby The University of Chicago hosted a conference highlighting The Behavior of Federal Judges: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Rational Choice (Harvard, 2013), a book written by USC Provost Professor Lee Epstein, Judge Richard Posner and William Landes of the University of Chicago Law School. The conference, “A Rational Choice Approach to Judging,” offered an array of perspectives on judicial behavior — from infusing politics into the law to perceptions of judicial performance. Epstein, Landes and Posner’s book tries to dispel the mystery of how judicial decisions are made in district courts, circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Their examination of judges as labor-market participants included judges’ aversion to effort, dissent and reversal; the influence of an individual judge’s ideology and identity; their auditioning for promotions; and the norm of conformity. The trio provided extensive statistical data from all levels of the federal judiciary to test their hypotheses. At the conference, the authors presented a paper that attempted to respond to several points raised in Cass Sunstein’s otherwise glowing review in The New Republic. Using an innovative technique, they showed that even adjustments to their data do not change their basic findings. Also speaking at the conference were Stephen Choi of New York University, Joshua Fischman of Northwestern University, Mitu Gulati of Duke University, who is visiting at USC, William Hubbard of the University of Chicago, Jonathan Kastellec of Princeton University, Alon Klement of the Radzyner School of Law, Thomas Miles of University of Chicago, Jeff Rachlinski of Cornell University, Maya Sen of the University of Rochester, Joanna Shepherd Bailey of Emory University, Andrei Shleifer of Harvard University, Emerson Tiller of Northwestern University and Andrew Wistrich, federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California.