ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents the most up-to-date examinations and analyses on judicial behavior, and offers suggestions for future endeavors and scholarly research. It reviews the motivations behind judicial voting and other judicial actions. The book discusses the three major explanations for judicial behavior, such as, attitudes, law and strategic behavior. It also presents an analysis of the difficulties and different ways to measure attitudes and law. The book examines the US Supreme Court, and provides an overview of the history of scholarship in this area. It explores lower federal courts, specialized courts and state courts in US The book examines selection mechanisms to lower federal courts and state courts. It focuses on an area that has seen little scholarly examination by American political scientists and other scholars of judicial behavior, and analyses of the courts of other countries as well as transnational courts.
