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

美国上诉法院的上诉辩护和司法决策

• 批准号: 9819268
• 负责人: Susan Haire
• 金额: $ 4.97万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-05-01 至 2002-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9819268&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Appellate; Advocacy; Judicial; Decision; Making

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.

本研究在美国上诉法院的决策，旨在探讨在何种程度上，个人律师能够影响司法意见和案件的结果，通过巧妙的宣传和问题的框架，在他们的上诉简报中展示。 此外，本研究将审查律师对问题从审判到上诉的转变的影响，以及对法院接受某些上诉论点的影响。 通过关注上诉过程中的信息输入，本研究将推进我们对法官和律师之间的动态互动的理解。本试点研究将集中在1996-1998年美国格鲁吉亚亚特兰大第十一巡回上诉法院法官发表的意见决定的案件。 它将探讨律师如何通过他们的简报，能够框定问题和论点，以影响上诉法院意见的内容，以及案件的结果。 特别是，它将研究诉讼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，以塑造上诉的发展。 这些数据将直接来自初审法院的意见、律师的辩护状和上诉法院的判决。 这些数据将通过对参与上诉的律师进行调查而得到补充。 此外，这些数据将允许评估在上诉过程中产生或压制问题的程度，以及律师是否能够影响这种问题的转变。 为了控制案件内容的变化，本研究将审查（2）通过抽样程序确定的决定和（2）在一段时间内在两个狭义定义的问题领域提出索赔的案件的范围。 结合起来，这些数据集将提供一个机会，以审查由美国第十一巡回上诉法院决定的250起案件的上诉过程中的信息输入。