Appellate Advocacy and Judicial Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

这项关于美国上诉法院决策的研究试图探索个别律师能够在多大程度上通过巧妙的辩护和上诉摘要中展示的问题框架来影响司法意见和案件结果。此外，这项研究将考察律师对问题从审判到上诉层面的转变的影响，以及对法院对上诉中某些论点的接受程度的影响。通过关注上诉过程中的信息输入，本研究将促进我们对BASE和BAR之间动态交互作用的理解。这项初步研究将聚焦于1996-1998年间佐治亚州亚特兰大美国第11巡回上诉法院法官根据公布的意见做出裁决的案件。它将探讨律师如何能够通过其案情摘要来框定问题和论点，以影响上诉法院意见的内容以及案件结果。特别是，它将审查当事人的律师战略性地强调或忽视问题、索赔、先例和/或事实的方式，以影响上诉的发展。这些数据将直接来自初审法院的意见、律师的案情摘要和上诉法院的裁决。这些数据将通过对参与上诉的律师的调查而得到补充。此外，这些数据将允许评估在上诉过程中产生或抑制问题的程度，以及律师是否能够影响这种问题的转变。为了控制案例内容的变化，这项研究将检查(2)通过抽样程序确定的决定，以及(2)在一段时间内在两个狭义问题领域提出索赔的案例。综合起来，这些数据集将提供一个机会，以检查美国第11巡回上诉法院裁决的250起案件的上诉过程中的信息输入。

This study of decision making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals seeks to explore the extent to which individual attorneys are able to influence judicial opinions and case outcomes through skillful advocacy and issue framing as exhibited in their appellate briefs. In addition, this study will examine attorneys' influence on the transformation of issues from the trial to the appellate levels, and on courts' receptivity to certain arguments on appeal. By focusing on the informational inputs in the appeals process, this research will advance our understanding of the dynamic interaction between bench and bar.This pilot study will focus on cases decided with published opinion by judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia from 1996-1998. It will explore the manner in which attorneys, through their briefs, are able to frame issues and arguments so as to influence the content of appellate court opinions, as well as case outcomes. Particularly, it will examine ways in which litigants' counsel strategically emphasize, or ignore issues, claims, precedent, and/or facts in order to shape the development of the appeal. The data will be derived directly from the trial court opinion, the attorneys' briefs, and the appellate court decision. These data will be augmented by a survey of the attorneys involved in the appeals. In addition, the data will permit an evaluation of the extent to which issue creation or suppression takes place in the appellate process, and if attorneys are able to influence such issue transformation. To control for variation in case content, this study will examine (2) decisions identified through a sampling procedure and (2) the universe of cases that raise claims in two narrowly defined issue areas over the time period. Combined, these data sets will provide an opportunity to examine informational inputs in the appeal process for 250 cases decided by the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.