Collaborative Research: Fifty State Supreme Court Data Project

州最高法院数据项目最初是由1996年的项目开发赠款和1997年的项目赠款发起的，它的基本假设是，缺乏包括横向差异在内的单一可靠和系统的数据库阻碍了比较州司法学术的发展，更广泛地说，使关于比较制度的文献几乎不可能发展。到2000年5月，当该项目的这一阶段结束时，主要调查员将收集到美国所有50个州的最高法院至少两年的完整数据(1995年和1996年)。该项目涉及一个编码方案，包括关于州最高法院裁决的423个项目，并创建一个模板，使编码系统化，并允许将数据直接输入计算机。这项研究包括1995年和1996年的所有196个自然法院，1995年和1996年任职的429名法官的所有已公布来源的传记数据，以及50个州的12000多起案件(截至2000年2月14日)。有关该项目的最新信息可在该项目的网站上找到：(http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pbrace/statecourt)完成后，数据库可供来自不同角度的学者使用，以解决围绕法院的一些最令人困惑的问题，希望能导致更普遍、更准确的法院在美国社会中的运作理论。

The State Supreme Court Data Project, originally launched with a project development grant in 1996 and a project grant in 1997, rests upon the fundamental assumption that the lack of a single reliable and systematic data base that includes cross-sectional variation has impeded the development of comparative state judicial scholarship and, more generally, has rendered the development of a literature on comparative institutions virtually impossible. By May 2000, when this phase of the project ends, the principal investigators will have gathered at least two complete years of data (1995 and 1996) on the courts of last resort in all fifty American states. The project involves a coding scheme that includes 423 items on state supreme court decisions and creating a template that systematizes coding and allows direct data entry into computers. The research inclludes all 196 natural courts in 1995 and 1996, biographical data from all published sources for the 429 justices serving in 1995 and 1996, and over 12,000 cases in fifty states (as of February 14, 2000). Up-to-date information about the project can be found on the PI's website: (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pbrace/statecourt) When completed, the data base can be used by scholars from diverse perspectives to address the some of the most perplexing issues surrounding courts, leading, it is hoped, to more general, and more accurate, theories of the functioning of courts in American society.