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- Title
JUDICIAL LAW MAKING AND ADMINISTRATION.
- Authors
Cramton, Roger C.
- Abstract
In contrast to other agencies of the government, the people have confidence in the fairness and integrity of the courts. True, there is continuing complaint over the law's cost and delay. But, apart from this perennial complaint, popular dissatisfaction appears to stem from two perceptions, first, that decisions in criminal cases turn too often upon procedural technicalities rather than upon the guilt or innocence of the offender; and second, that some judges, and especially the federal judiciary, have been too actively engaged in lawmaking on social and economic issues that are better handled by other institutions of government. The layman, on scanning his newspaper or viewing the television screen, discovers to his surprise that judges are running schools and prison systems, prescribing curricula, formulating budgets, and regulating the environment. General acceptance of the authority of law is a necessary bulwark of otherwise fragile social order. If it disappears, the resulting collapse of order may put the American people in the mood for that "more effective management" which is likely to characterize any distinctly American brand of authoritarianism.
- Subjects
UNITED States; PUBLIC administration; COURTS; JUDGE-made law; JUDICIAL process; LEGAL judgments; JUSTICE administration; AUTHORITARIANISM
- Publication
Public Administration Review, 1976, Vol 36, Issue 5, p551
- ISSN
0033-3352
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/974236