State Legislative Reforms to the Selection, Retention and Tenure of State High Court Judges: The Role of Larger Reform Efforts and Political Uncertainty, 1850-2000

对州高等法院法官的选拔、保留和任期的州立法改革：更大的改革努力和政治不确定性的作用，1850-2000 年

• 批准号: 0550434
• 负责人: Valerie Hoekstra
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-01 至 2008-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0550434&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: State; Legislative; Reforms; Selection; Retention

Title: State Legislative Reforms to the Selection, Retention and Tenure of State High Court Judges: The Role of Larger Reform Efforts and Political Uncertainty, 1850-2000 (SES0550434) Abstract In this project, I will analyze state legislative decisions to alter the selection, retention and tenure of state high court judges from 1850 to 2000. The proper balance between independence and accountability of judges is an enduring topic of interest among scholars of law and courts. While there are numerous historical accounts and normative arguments there are few systematic, theoretically motivated studies of the impetus for these reforms. There is a substantial body of research clearly documenting how the method and timing of selection, retention and tenure affects the kinds of decisions judges render. Judges who are more accountable to a particular institution (or group) are significantly more likely to make decisions that support that institutions goals. Since this choice has such important consequences for the policies that courts render, a better understanding of the political circumstances surrounding these reforms is clearly warranted. This is particularly true since the history of reforms in the states reveals an important question: Why have legislators been so frequently willing to create a judiciary over which they will have less control? The project focuses largely on two explanations for these changes: larger historical reforms and political uncertainty. Most judicial selection and retention reforms are often attributed to larger historical reforms. However, that research is largely anecdotal or relies on single state studies. One goal of this project is to test systematically the effect of these larger reform movements. More importantly, this project also examines the role of political uncertainty on legislative decisions to alter the rules that govern judicial selection, retention, and tenure. An emerging body of research argues that incumbent lawmakers will create more independent judges in order to make it more costly for future lawmakers to change the policies currently enacted. They should be most willing to do this when there is uncertainty about the current regimes future electoral chances. The research design employs pooled cross-sectional time series and event history models of reforms to judicial selection, retention and tenure from 1850 to 2000. Preliminary analysis of state-level switches from partisan to nonpartisan elections (1900 to 1940) is included. In addition, the research design also incorporates historical media accounts and legislative histories to provide rich detail and complement and supplement the statistical analyses. The results from this project will have a broader impact in numerous ways. The project will engage students, both graduate and undergraduate, in the research process. Specifically, the project will support a graduate student for one year, and will provide an opportunity for promising undergraduates to be exposed to academic research. I also intend to incorporate the data obtained from this project in my undergraduate and graduate classes on the judiciary. The research will be presented at national conferences and will serve as the basis for journal publications and a book manuscript. On a wider scale, the data, codebooks and publications that result from the project will be made publicly available to the academic community, policy makers, and policy reformers on my website at Arizona State University. Academics interested in law and courts, as well as those interested in American politics, state politics, and American political development should be interested in the data. It will be the first dataset that couples data on selection, retention and tenure with a wide variety of other state political and historical contextual data. Those who are interested in judicial independence and accountability from a normative or policy making perspective will have a more complete foundation of where these reforms are most likely to occur as well as the efficacy of reform efforts to produce change.

标题：国家高等法院法官的选拔，保留和任期的州立法改革：更大的改革努力和政治不确定性的作用，1850- 2000年（SES0550434）在该项目中，我将分析州立法决定，以改变1850年至2000年的州高法院法官的选择，保留和权限的律师和律师之间的范围。 尽管有许多历史记载和规范性论点，但对于这些改革的动力，很少有系统的，理论上的动机研究。 有大量的研究清楚地记录了选择，保留和任期的方法和时机如何影响法官提出的各种决策。对特定机构（或团体）更负责的法官更有可能做出支持该机构目标的决策。 由于这种选择对法院提供的政策产生了如此重要的后果，因此明确保证了对这些改革围绕这些改革的政治情况的更好理解。 这尤其如此，因为各州的改革历史揭示了一个重要的问题：为什么立法者经常愿意创建一个司法机构，他们的控制权较少？ 该项目主要关注这些变化的两个解释：更大的历史改革和政治不确定性。 大多数司法选择和保留改革通常归因于更大的历史改革。 但是，该研究在很大程度上是轶事或依赖单个国家研究。 该项目的目标之一是系统地测试这些较大的改革运动的影响。 更重要的是，该项目还研究了政治不确定性对改变司法选择，保留和任期的规则的立法决定的作用。 一项新兴的研究机构认为，现任立法者将创建更独立的法官，以使未来立法者更改当前制定的政策更加昂贵。 当目前的选举机会不确定性时，他们应该最愿意这样做。 该研究设计采用合并的横断面时间序列和事件历史模型，从1850年到2000年，对司法选择，保留和任期。包括对从党派到非党派选举（1900至1940年）的州级开关的初步分析。 此外，研究设计还纳入了历史媒体记录和立法历史，以提供丰富的细节，补充和补充统计分析。该项目的结果将以多种方式产生更大的影响。 该项目将与研究生和本科生一起参与研究过程。 具体而言，该项目将为研究生提供一年的支持，并将为有前途的大学生接受学术研究提供机会。 我还打算将从该项目获得的数据纳入我的本科和司法研究生班。 该研究将在国家会议上进行，并将作为期刊出版物和书籍手稿的基础。 在更广泛的范围内，该项目产生的数据，代码簿和出版物将在我在亚利桑那州立大学的网站上公开提供给学术界，政策制定者和政策改革者。 对法律和法院感兴趣的学术界以及对美国政治，国家政治和美国政治发展感兴趣的学者应该对数据感兴趣。 这将是第一个将有关选择，保留和任期的数据与其他各种州政治和历史上下文数据相结合的数据集。 那些从规范或政策制定观点对司法独立性和问责制感兴趣的人将为这些改革最有可能发生的何处以及改革努力进行变革的效力提供更完整的基础。