Behavioral Research In Public Law

Abstract

During the past half dozen years or so, beginning in the mid-1950's, a somewhat revolutionary change has been taking place in the research orientation of the political science profession toward what traditionally has been called the study of public law. Typical of the metamorphosis now in process are the recent publication of a volume of research studies in judicial behavior in a yearbook series dedicated to the analysis of political behavior from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural point of view, and the contributions of several political scientists to a law journal which recently devoted an entire issue to a symposium on the prediction and measurement of judicial behavior. Although it would hardly be accurate to say that the new approach is characteristic of anything approaching a majority of the political scientists who are teachers of constitutional law, the judicial process, and allied subjects, it is certainly no exaggeration to state that the bulk of the research on these same subjects, published in political science journals during this period, has been produced by the behavioralists, as they tend to be called. The purpose of this paper is to summarize this recent research in judicial behavior.