We present a model of lawmaking by appellate courts in which judges influenced by policy preferences can distinguish precedents at some cost. We find a cost and a benefit of diversity of judicial views. Policy-motivated judges distort the law away from efficiency, but diversity of judicial views also fosters legal evolution and increases the law’s precision. We call our central finding the Cardozo theorem: even when judges are motivated by personal agendas, legal evolution is, on average, beneficial because it washes out judicial biases and renders the law more precise. Our paper provides a theoretical foundation for the evolutionary adaptability of common law.
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Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer, 2006.
"Judicial Fact Discretion,"
NBER Working Papers
12679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Carsten Hefeker & Michael Neugart, 2009.
"Labor Market Regulation and the Legal System,"
MAGKS Papers on Economics
200915, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
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