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We experimentally investigate the determinants of judicial decisions in a setting resembling real-world judicial decision-making. U.S. federal judges (N=32) spend 55 minutes judging a real appeals case from an international tribunal, with minor modifications to accommodate the experimental treatments. The fictitious briefs focus on one easily understandable issue of law. Our 2×2 between-subject factorial design crosses a weak precedent and legally irrelevant defendant characteristics. In a survey, law professors predicted that the precedent would have a stronger effect than the defendant characteristics. In actuality, the precedent has no detectable effect on the judges' decisions, whereas the two defendants' affirmance rates differ by 45% (p<.01). Judges' written reasons, on the other hand, do not mention defendant characteristics at all, focusing instead on the precedent and other legalistic and policy considerations.

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This paper empirically compares civil procedure in common law and civil law countries. Using World-Bank and hand-collected data, and unlike earlier studies that used predecessor data sets, this paper …nds no systematic di¤erences between common and civil law countries in the complexity, formalism, duration, or cost of procedure in courts of …rst instance. The paper further …nds that by a subjective measure, contract enforceability in common law countries is higher than in French, but lower than in German and Scandinavian, civil law countries. Given civil procedure's central role for the common/civil law distinction, these …ndings challenge the distinction's economic relevance. (JEL: K40, K41, P51)For helpful comments and encouragement, I thank

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It is generally assumed that trade retaliation under the WTO performs some kind of 'rebalancing' by allowing the injured Member to suspend 'concessions and obligations' vis-à-vis the violating Member of a level equivalent to the level of 'nullification and impairment' suffered by the injured Member. This article argues that this perception is misguided. The article first questions if a sensible comparator exists with which equivalence for purposes of 'rebalancing' could be evaluated. It then argues that WTO arbitration decisions do not even succeed in their limited goal of providing for retaliation that will affect trade in the same amount as the WTO-inconsistent measure at issue. One reason is the use of an asymmetric and underspecified trade effects comparator. The other reason is very significant miscalculation of the trade effects of the violation, as shown by detailed legal-economic analysis of all relevant arbitration decisions. The decisions concerning countermeasures against prohibited export subsidies do not make any attempt at 'rebalancing' in the first place. The article considers political explanations of arbitration decisions. It concludes with some suggestions for improvement.