DISSERTATION IMPROVEMENT RESEARCH: Appellate Recruitment, Elite Representation, and Judicial Decision Making in the Higher British Judiciary, 1845-1999

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This project investigates appellate recruitment, elite representation, and judicial decision making in the higher British judiciary for a 155-year period of British history, 1845-1999. It significantly expands an existing database that encapsulates more than 150 measures of personal characteristics--especially family status and education legal backgrounds and experience, and career paths--on the judges of the High Court of Justice, the Court of Appeal, and the Lords of Appeals, and the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. The project has three research objective: (1) To describe and analyze who has served in the higher British judiciary in the last century and a hal. This aspect of the research will show how this judicial elite has changed over time, and how change in the composition of the judiciary has reflected (or failed to reflect) changes in British society and politics; (2) To develop a causal model of judicial recruitment to the appellate bench; and (3) To explore the relationship between background characteristics and judicial decision-making in a British context.