Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-49). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Western Ontario, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-156). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD%5F0007/MQ42200.pdf.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-49). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2008. / Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, August 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The special role courts play in a democracy requires designers of constitutions to consider the delicate trade-offs between democratic accountability and judicial independence. This dissertation analyzes the decisional consequences of state supreme court institutional structures. States utilize several types of election and elite reconfirmation, and each method carries a systematically different risk of incumbent defeat. My theory predicts that as reappointment uncertainty increases, judicial independence decreases. I define judicial independence as decisions made by judges using only considerations that are internal to the rule of law. I measure judicial independence by quantifying the external influence of partisan, elite, popular, and economic pressures applied to judges. I conclude by considering the normative implications of the empirical findings. Because judicial independence is a problem of optimization, not maximization, constitutional designers hope to strike a balance between some form of judicial accountability, popular constitutionalism, and judicial independence. / text

Today’s legal system of China has faced many significant changes. One of the often mentioned challenges concerns the appropriate management and handling of an abundance of new and complex disputes. Due to the popularity of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Western countries, it began to draw people’s attention when designing a Chinese dispute resolution policy. With this fact being known and considering China’s domestic political climates and the Chinese practice of using non-confrontational means to solve disputes, one circle of scholars suggested that court mediation (fayuantiaojie, 法院调解) should be enhanced. In June 2009, this suggestion was adopted by the Supreme People’s Court. Concerning the challenges of courts handling disputes in recent years, the SPC has placed a priority on practice of court mediation. However, China’s situation differs from the West, and the existing scholarship lacks empirical research on court-connected ADR. This is especially true in southwest China. Thus, it is quite necessary for legal scholars to assess and examine the operation of court mediation in today’s southwest China in order to answer whether it is a feasible institutional arrangement in the southwest context. This will not only enhance our understanding of the nature and rationale of court-connected ADR at the intellectual level but will also perfect its performance in the future. The purpose of this research is to contribute an empirical study on court mediation and attempts to paint a more complicated and nuanced picture of ADR in southwest China’s context rather than simply copying Western legal narratives to explain China’s legal reality. More specifically, through empirically examining the process of court mediation and the implementation of the relevant policies in practice, this dissertation intends to 1) investigate how court mediation is carried out in southwest China’s grassroots courts in order to answer whether it is a feasible institutional arrangement in the southwest context as well as what the problems are in practice, if any,2) provide suggestions for clarifying and redesigning China’s mediation law in the future and introduce a regionalism-based paradigm to China’s legal studies and dispute resolution policy design as an alternative. Based on empirical studies in the grassroots courts of Yunnan, this dissertation argues that although court mediation now is driven by “politically correct pragmatism”, it is feasible in southwest grassroots China due to the social context and the social embedment of the locals. However, the current “Mediation First” policy is still problematic because it may over-simplify Chinese complexity in the dispute resolution domain and has gone far away from the spirit of ADR by pursuing political goals as its priority and overemphasizing mediation’s role. The way to solve the problem is not to simply or ideologically restrict or limit court mediation; alternatively, it is necessary to establish more straightforward and uncompromising rules to exclude ill-suited cases from being mediated in order to improve its performance. Now is also the time to re-examine China’s nationalized, generalized paradigm concerning both China’s legal constructions and scholarship, and attempt to open up a new regionalism-based paradigm when analyzing China’s legal issues. / published_or_final_version / Law / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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This thesis explores issue of whether Texas courts are currently capable of applying and willing to apply Mexican law. Texas courts and legal practitioners have historically been unwilling to trust or to apply Mexican law. This thesis explores the doctrines and legal rules that Texas courts have used to avoid Mexican law in the past and into the present. It then examines the few cases in which Texas courts have applied Mexican law to determine that even when applying Mexican law, the courts express uncertainty or an unwillingness to rely entirely on Mexican law. This thesis then describes recent reforms to the Mexican judiciary that should obviate some of Texas courts’ major concerns. However, Texas courts still do not willingly or comfortably apply Mexican law. This thesis concludes by suggesting that the comparative law doctrine of judicial dialogue, or communication among judges, offers the best chance for Texas judges to trust Mexican law enough to apply it. The paper ends with some proposals to implement this exchange. / text

As courts in separation-of-powers systems are said to have the power of neither the purse nor the sword, their institutional legitimacy is essential for ensuring compliance with their decisions. While institutional legitimacy has been examined in-depth for national high courts, the legitimacy of sub-national courts has been overlooked. In this dissertation I develop a new measure of court-level institutional legitimacy for state high courts. I use multilevel regression and poststratification to create state-level measures from individual-level survey results. In this dissertation, I develop a theory of review and delegation by state high courts. I argue that these courts work toward two main goals: implementing their policy preferences and maintaining the legitimacy of their institution. I argue for a two-stage process that considers whether or not the court will decide on the constitutionality of a statute in the first stage and whether they will overturn the statute and delegate policy control back to the other branches of government in the second. Relying on the literatures on both institutional legitimacy and political delegation, I suggest that courts may delegate policy control back to the other branches of government by specifically stating this in their opinion. Finally, I examine the conditions under which a state high court will delegate to either the state legislature or the executive branch. Overall, I find that legitimacy is important when considering state high court decision-making; and it must be considered along with political context and institutional rules as one of the central motivations for state high courts in separation of powers theories.