Judicial Institutions

This seminar is designed as an overview of the major debates in Judicial Politics, with deeper coverage of a selection of topics. The primary goal of the course is to familiarize students with the principal questions being asked by scholars in this subfield, the methodological approaches employed, and the avenues available for future research. The primary focus is on law and courts as political institutions and judges as political actors. We will examine decision making and power relations within courts, within the judicial hierarchy, and within the constitutional system. While we will concentrate on U.S. courts, we will also cover some material on other courts. We will aim to clarify and probe the puzzles, theories, methods, and evidence presented in the various texts and to assess the contributions they make to an understanding of judicial politics. We will explore issues such as research design, causal inference, the role of theory, and the nature of political science argument, in ways relevant throughout political science. This course will have a seminar format, though I will occasionally lecture on material as necessary. Other than that, my role is to moderate and guide discussion, relying on you to do your part.