Judges and Their Audiences

Larry Baum (OSU) has just published a new book with Princeton University Press that I'm sure will be required reading for all interested in this blog.  Larry's earlier book, The Puzzle of Judicial Behavior (U of MI Press), is a standard in most graduate seminars on judicial behavior ( its bibliography alone makes it worthy of attention) and has deservedly garnered much attention in the field.

Judges and Their Audiences:
A Perspective on Judicial Behavior

Lawrence Baum

Cloth | June 2006 | $29.95 / £18.95 | ISBN: 0-691-12493-0
256 pp. | 6 x 9

From the PUP website:

What motivates judges as decision makers? Political scientist Lawrence Baum offers a new perspective on this crucial question, a perspective based on judges' interest in the approval of audiences important to them.

The conventional scholarly wisdom holds that judges on higher courts seek only to make good law, good policy, or both. In these theories, judges are influenced by other people only in limited ways, in consequence of their legal and policy goals. In contrast, Baum argues that the influence of judges' audiences is pervasive. This influence derives from judges' interest in popularity and respect, a motivation central to most people. Judges care about the regard of audiences because they like that regard in itself, not just as a means to other ends. Judges and Their Audiences uses research in social psychology to make the case that audiences shape judges' choices in substantial ways. Drawing on a broad range of scholarship on judicial decision-making and an array of empirical evidence, the book then analyzes the potential and actual impact of several audiences, including the public, other branches of government, court colleagues, the legal profession, and judges' social peers.

Engagingly written, this book provides a deeper understanding of key issues concerning judicial behavior on which scholars disagree, identifies aspects of judicial behavior that diverge from the assumptions of existing models, and shows how those models can be strengthened.

Comments

[Brandon Bartels]

Baum's book is out in hardback (cloth) right now (I have a copy). But apparently, one can order it only from Princeton University Press via the following website: http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8323.html

From what Professor Ford has gathered, it sounds like it will be out in paperback July 3, and thus, available via Amazon, B&N, etc. at that time?

Let me know if I'm incorrect on any of this.

[William Ford]

I could not find a listing for Baum's new book on Amazon. Barnes & Noble reports that it will be available on July 31st, but B&N's entry conflates two different books (giving Baum a co-author).

So, I called Princeton's fulfillment service and was told the book will be available on July 3rd.