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Interventions and Power in Judicial Hierarchies: Appellate Courts in England and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Burton Atkins
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Abstract

Despite the advances made in the study of appellate courts in the past several decades, little attention has been devoted to evaluating the role of appellate courts cross-nationally. This article examines appellate courts in England and in America, particularly the English Court of Appeal and the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. The American and English systems are proposed as alternative models of the relationship between courts and their respective political systems in Western common law regimes. Focusing on the intervention behavior of the intermediate appellate courts and their interaction with their respective courts of last resort, the data presented reveal more commonality than divergence in the behavior of the two judicial hierarchies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , 1990 , pp. 71 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Law and Society Association.

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