The thesis examines the effect of the number of judges on court output in the Czech Republic. It is based on the theory of a rational judge and the hypothesis that after the appointment of new judges, the incumbent judges face lower caseload pressure and they can decrease their effort. It follows that the change in the court output is very small or non-existent. I develop a model that specifies court output as a function of judicial staffing, caseload and other variables. I employ OLS, FE and 2SLS estimation methods. The estimation results suggest that the number of judges does not affect court output in the case of district courts. In the case of regional courts, a 10% growth in the number of judges leads approximately to a 5% growth in the number of resolved cases. Furthermore, estimates suggest that all courts strongly react on changes in the caseload. I also show that the quantity-quality trade-off is not present at courts in the Czech Republic. The thesis contributes to thin empirical literature on the effect of judicial staffing on court output mainly by controlling for the case difficulty and by using panel data from the Czech Republic.

Healthcare professionals such as speech and language therapists are expected to change their practice throughout their career. However, from a practice perspective, there is a lack of knowledge around what practice change is, what it really takes, and why there are different trajectories. Consequently, therapists, managers and commissioners lack empirical evidence on which to base decisions about enabling practice change. In addition, intervention researchers lack basic sociological research around implementation that could inform their research designs, reporting and impact. This case-based sociological inquiry, underpinned by critical realist assumptions, was designed to address this knowledge gap. It includes a two-stage qualitative synthesis of 53 (then 16) studies where speech and language therapists explained the work of their practice in depth, and a primary qualitative study focused on one professional jurisdiction, children with speech sound difficulties (SSD). Forty two speech and language therapists from three NHS areas and independent practice in Scotland participated in individual interviews or self-organised pairs or focus groups to discuss in depth how and why they had changed their practice with these children. A variety of comparative methods were used to detail, understand and explain this particular aspect of the social world. The resulting theory of SSD practice change comprises six configured cases of practice change (Transforming; Redistributing; Venturing; Personalising; Delegating; Refining) emerging from an evolving and modifiable practice context. The work that had happened across four key aspects of this context (Intervention; Candidacy; Caseload; Service) explained what made each case possible, and how practice had come to be one way rather than another. Among its practical applications, the theory could help services plan more realistic practice change. In addition, the inductively developed layered model of SSD intervention change has the potential to contribute to speech and language therapy education as well as methodological discussions around complex interventions.

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