Tag: interdependence

WSJ on ABA Vetting of Judicial Nominees

The Wall Street Journal posted a nice article this weekend on the role of the American bar Association in reviewing and rating federal judicial nominees.  (I was quoted, which was also nice!)  It gives a good summary of the ABA’s rating process and the history behind it.

The ABA ratings have had their share of controversy, and in an age where everything is increasingly politicized, we should not be surprised if controversy continues.  But the ABA’s overt avoidance of political/policy questions, and deliberate focus on the qualities everyone would expect of a good judge (appropriate demeanor, high level of competence, intelligence and legal skills, etc.) make it a worthwhile addition to the overall vetting process.  Nor is the ABA alone: similar criteria are used by state judicial nominating commissions across the country.

The ABA’s involvement also underscores an oddity of federal judicial selection: almost everyone gets a say in the timing and substance of judicial nominations except the courts themselves.  I’m hard pressed to think of another sizeable organization that is so constrained in hiring its core employees.

If you hit a subscription wall, a PDF of the article is here.

What are interdependent courts?

Courts need resources from the external environment to survive, and in turn they contribute their own resource–the resolution of disputes through adjudication–to society.

“Interdependence is the reason why nothing comes out quite the way one wants it to.” —  Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald Salancik

It is a common refrain that the judiciary should be independent: judicial decisions should be fair, impartial, and not influenced by other branches of government or powerful interests.  But even courts that are independent in their legal decision making are not fully free from the influences of their environment.  Courts are resource-dependent: they rely on legislatures for funding, staffing, and jurisdictional authority.  They rely on attorneys for professional support and expertise.  They rely on prosecutors and the public to produce a steady stream of cases for the courts to resolve.  And they rely on all these groups for their most important resource: legitimacy.

In this sense, courts are more accurately described as interdependent.  They need resources from the external environment (organizations and people outside the court system) to survive, and in turn they contribute their own resource–the resolution of disputes through adjudication–to society.

This fact is both obvious and underappreciated.  Interdependence affects court structure, administration, organization, strategy, behavior, and external relationships.  The primary purpose of this blog is to highlight instances of court interdependence worldwide.  And we will try to test out some theories and refine our conclusions as we go along.