The appellate review system is intended to serve as an efficient remedy for imperfect judicial decision making. However, it can fulfill this task only when appeals are filed solely due to bad verdicts and are ex-ante unpredictable based on factors that are exogenous to the judge. Using data from...

Recent developments in multi-district litigations (MDLs) raise interesting and important questions about the responsibilities of lead attorneys and judges. Increasingly, lead attorneys use their control of settlement negotiations to enrich themselves. In a prior article co-authored with...

This paper focuses on the anti-torture campaign that was catalyzed into existence in mid-2004 following the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos and the release of the first batch of "torture memos." Because the Bush administration essentially "legalized" torture, litigation has been the primary...

Are more cases settled when judges are elected among the most belligerent trade unions? In the specific case of French employment courts, the answer is broadly negative. This article provides evidence of the minor role that judges have on alternative dispute resolution in and out of court....

Drawing on the political theory of judicial decision making, our paper proposes a new and parsimonious ex ante litigation risk measure: federal judge ideology. We find that judge ideology complements existing measures of litigation risk based on industry membership and firm characteristics....