Inter-Court Dynamics and the Development of Legal Policy: Citation Patterns in the Decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals

Lower federal appellate judges, like other government officials, identify problems, formulate and implement solutions, and subsequently evaluate them for their efficacy. Immediately following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, courts were confronted with cases that raised new policy issues in claims of employment discrimination. With no guidance from the Supreme Court for five years, circuit courts articulated solutions to these issues with written published opinions. By examining citations to precedents in those opinions, we evaluate the degree to which the court's reasoning draws on policies from other circuits. Although stare decisis does not compel appeals court judges to consider decisions from other circuits, 76 percent of the opinions include a reference to an out-of-circuit precedent. Outside citations were not uniform across circuits and cases with increased references to outside courts in circuits were characterized by conflict. Our examination of citation patterns suggests that the development of precedent proceeds on two tracks. On one level, circuit judges' opinions build on precedent from within their court. More broadly, citations reflect on an inter-court dialog to identify conflict and consensus in federal legal policy.     

明代宫廷画家职官状况述略

明代宫廷画家的官职、称谓不一,任职混杂,史料记载零散、简略,给宫廷画家身份的辨认造成一定的困难。从宫廷内部管理状况来看,画家的官职多样且分散,涉及多个职官体系,官职中有相当一部分为虚职,在具体管理方面权归内廷太监。本文力图从明代职官体系和内廷隶属等方面切入,区分辨别宫廷画家的官职与称谓,从而进一步认识明代宫廷画家的身份定位,了解明代宫廷绘画创作的运作状况。     

试论清代皇帝明黄色朝袍的功用

在清代皇帝冠服中,明黄色朝袍的功用尤其引人关注。但是,长期以来人们对“朝祭所御”的概念往往含混不清,以至认为清帝明黄色朝袍既可亲郊飨庙又能御殿朝贺,模糊了朝服与祭服的区别。顺治十年(1653年)都察院左副都御史傅景星奏言:“自古帝王一代之兴,必有一代之制,黄帝尧舜垂衣裳而天下治。衮冕黼黻代有不同,朝有朝服,祭有祭服,所以肃臣民而格上下也……”。本文旨在讨论清帝明黄色朝袍的不同作用,从而区分出朝服与祭服的不同。     

The Preemptive Power of State Supreme Courts: Adoption of Abortion and Death Penalty Legislation

We offer a theory about public policy adoption that depicts a game between state supreme courts and state policymakers. We hypothesize that court ideological hostility or friendliness operates to discourage or encourage policy enactment, with the likelihood of subsequent court intervention magnifying the relationship. To test the argument we examine the influence of court ideology on the enactment of state abortion and death penalty laws since the 1970s. Empirical analyses provide strong support for our theory, indicating that court ideological hostility or friendliness significantly influenced state abortion and death penalty policy enactments. In addition, the likelihood of court intervention conditioned this relationship, with the most pronounced effect occurring where subsequent court review was mandatory. The findings reveal courts exert important preemptive influence on law without hearing a case. This facet of judicial influence expands the traditional view of actors involved in the policymaking process.     

清入关前的对日认识

清在入关前后,虽曾尝试以朝鲜为中介将日本纳入其宗藩体系,但遭后者拒绝后,并未重演元代武力征伐之故事。此后直至近代,清只同日本保持在长崎一地的民间贸易关系,后者则始终游离于前者建立的东亚宗藩体系之外。清在入关前主要借助朝鲜提供的各种日本情报而形成的对日认识,及在此认识基础上形成的以实用主义对待日本的态度,可以说是导致上述历史现象产生的重要原因。     

State Ceremonial,Court Culture and Political Power in Early Modern Denmark, 1536-1746

In early modern Europe the court of a prince was many things: the household of a prince, a point of contact between the ruler and the elites, a cultural trendsetter, a focal point of patronage and an important institution of regional and international politics. In short, the court had many functions. In this article the focus is on the main lines of development in the court culture of early modern Denmark, from the Reformation (1536) until early Absolutism. Certain structural changes are highlighted and an attempt is made to explain them in political terms. As a prelude, I offer some theoretical reflections on the meaning of court culture in general and ceremonial culture in particular. Let me say from the outset that I have found my inspiration mainly in German and American historical scholarship, which for the past twenty years or so has witnessed a continuous and fruitful debate on the early modern court.     

Court-day crowds in colonial Virginia

ABSTRACT

For a generation, legal historians investigating colonial Virginia have emphasized the dramaturgy of court day. According to the dramaturgical school of interpretation, administrative and judicial activities of county court officials amounted to theatrical performances that simultaneously enforced economic order and stabilized traditional social relationships. Such interpretations assume a large audience routinely attended county courts to observe legal dramas. Often, however, only a small number of persons can be documented as present during court day. The independence theorem from probability theory suggests that the number of documentable attendees is a useful and easily calculated estimate for actual total crowd size. If so, some Virginia court sessions were attended by hundreds of people, while others drew only a few participants. A variety of factors apparently inhibited court attendance in older Virginia counties. By contrast, in newer frontier counties, mid-eighteenth-century revisions of court calendars produced heavy attendance at court day. Regardless of the number of people in attendance, any Virginia county court could still effectively enforce credit contracts.     

对清代八团彩云金龙纹吉服的再认识

在清代服饰研究及实物辨识过程中,人们一般根据《大清会典》和《皇朝礼器图式》等记载清代服饰典制的文献,把八团彩云金龙纹样认定为清代后妃吉服上的专用纹样,并进而以之作为区分清代皇帝和后妃服饰的重要标识。本文通过对故宫博物院收藏的大量清代服饰实物、清代宫廷绘画中的服饰图像以及清代文献中相关的记载等直接或间接的资料的考察和分析,认为这一认识存在片面性和不准确性。事实上,八团彩云金龙纹并非清代后妃服饰所专有的纹饰。清早期,皇帝也曾穿用过饰八团彩云金龙纹的吉服,这种男用八团彩云金龙纹吉服与女用八团彩云金龙纹吉服存在着明显相异的形制特征,并有其特有的始创、演变和消失的历史发展过程。     

南明“奸臣”负面形象在后世的塑造——以田仰为例的考察

清代史家深受东林、复社门户成见的影响,在南明史著述中塑造了一批"奸臣"的负面形象。田仰虽有坚持抗清的事迹,但因与马士英关系密切,也被党社人士和后世学者视为奸臣。钱海岳《南明史》沿袭了传统观点,将田仰列入《奸臣传》。部分后世南明史著述为贬斥和丑化"奸臣",存在着不少歪曲史实之处。这些著述对田仰的抗清活动着墨甚少,并杜撰出他的若干负面事迹,使其形象遭到了彻底的奸邪化。     

THE POLITICS OF COURT REFORM:d IN A NUTSHELL

State court reform is proceeding at an ever-quickening pace. A major theme is centralized state judicial leadership and management in court organization and funding, and improved methods for the selection and discipline of judges. Trends in court reform, groups supporting and opposing change and a brief evaluation of some court reform efforts are examined. Court reform is viewed as a political process.     

Knightly Masculinity,Court Games and Material Culture in Late‐medieval Portugal: The Case of Constable Afonso (c.1480–1504)

This article explores the ways in which gender was used in order to transform an exiled and uneducated illegitimate child into a prince. Our study revolves around a member of the royal family, Afonso (c.1480–1504), who was brought up in hiding by peasants and who later, as a teenager, was reincorporated into the court. We argue that the keys to this process of rehabilitation were, on one hand, family politics centred around different configurations and on the other, his introduction into a court environment marked by the ideals of chivalry. Within this dynamic, material culture played a key role, because it gave the prince all the visual attributes of his new status, as well as allowing him the means to create a new self. We shall briefly introduce Afonso and his family context in order to give an insight into his life within changing political and dynastic contexts. Then, we will analyse the expression of manhood in the Portuguese court, using the spectacles at the court as a basis for observation, thus relating gender to material culture in a courtly environment.     

Regulating interpersonal debt in the bishop's court of Carpentras: litigation,litigators and the court, 1486 and 1487

Using notarial records, this article explains who sued whom at the bishop's court at Carpentras, why they did so and how the court managed people and their debt disputes. In 1486 and 1487, creditors pursued 240 suits over unpaid loans (about three-quarters of the court's business). Litigants spanned the social spectrum and included both Christians and Jews, suggesting that the court was well embedded in the local economy. This diversity, as well as the predominance of ‘horizontal lending’, matches regional trends. Drawing upon anecdotal evidence and quantitative work, the court's procedures, functions and appeal are explained. Since most loans were made orally, proving their existence was difficult. Cases rarely reached rulings and creditors could not expect from ecclesiastical judges the coercive innovations adopted by secular courts. Yet, this church court was a popular forum to authenticate debts, pressure debtors into confession and encourage peaceful, private concords.     

Crimson,Scarlet, Murrey and Carnation: Red at the Court of Henry VIII

Abstract

Red, in all its various shades, was a colour with many associations at the court of Henry VIII. This article presents a thematic analysis of the key circumstances when red clothing was worn at Henry VIII's court, namely the robes worn at sessions of parliament by the nobility and secular clergy, the livery issued at coronations, as well as livery given to members of the king's household and his army in 1544. In addition, the king wore red for key days in the liturgical year as his medieval predecessors had, while it also formed part of his everyday wardrobe. Red was also significant for others at the Henrician court, including the secular and ecclesiastical élite. As such, it was a colour that was associated with wealth, status and parliamentary authority.     

Alienated Outsider or Integrated Courtier? Edward Stafford,Third Duke of Buckingham, 1498–1521 and the Royal Court

Edward Stafford, third duke of Buckingham (d. 1521), is a key example in the historiographical interpretation of relations between crown and nobility as difficult and in conflict under the first two Tudor kings, not least because of his execution for treason in 1521. In particular, he has been seen as an outsider at the Tudor court, playing little role there except perhaps on great set-piece occasions. He was, in this interpretation, unable to adapt to the new role demanded of the nobility by the crown. Yet, drawing on the evidence of his extant and unpublished household accounts, Stafford can be seen to be very regularly at court under both Henry VII and Henry VIII, playing far more than just a ceremonial role, and it was only shortly before his execution that his relationship with Henry VIII soured. The duke's purposes in his attendance at court – service to the king, furtherance of his own business and leisure interests – can be teased out from the accounts, as can relationships with others at court. The study concludes by examining the extent to which the higher nobility expected to be at court and to be influential with the king in the period between 1485 and 1529. An appendix constructs a full itinerary for the duke for 1 April 1506 – 31 March 1507 from the evidence of a household account.     

Hysteria as a Shape-Shifting Forensic Psychiatric Diagnosis in the Netherlands c. 1885–1960

Based on criminal court cases found in archives and newspapers, this article traces how the diagnosis of hysteria functioned in trials and Dutch forensic psychiatric practice c. 1885–1960. Informed by Science and Technology Studies and praxiography, hysteria is studied as a ‘fire object'. It can make multiple relations with gender, which can be absent or present. This approach asks whether and how gender is important regarding hysteria. Gender only ‘stuck’ to hysteria in certain situations. In rape cases, hysteria took the form of lying and was connected to women. Although a woman's hysteria could be used as a reason to exonerate the male perpetrator's crime of murder, a man's hysteria never served to exculpate a female perpetrator of a crime. Signs on the body appeared to be very significant but did not suffice for a clear diagnosis. Inconsistencies during the psychiatric examination of the body therefore needed to be coordinated by pointing to other bodily symptoms, personal life stories, academic literature or logical reasoning. To analyse the ways hysteria functioned as a versatile fire object in the courtroom and pre-trial investigation alerts us to hysteria's shapeshifting potential that might explain the power of the hysteria label in twentieth-century medicine and culture.     

Community regulation and its effects: the aggressive actions of parishioners against priests and women in Paris, 1483–1505

At the start of the sixteenth century, the archidiaconal court of Paris lacked centralised means of enforcement and relied heavily on parishioners to supervise one another and their priests. This article analyses cases from court registers dating from 1483 to 1505 that detail instances in which parishioners reacted aggressively to illicit contact between priests and women. It argues that the court appropriated parishioners' intimidating and sometimes violent separations of priests and women as a means to enforce ecclesiastical statutes calling for strict domestic segregation between the two. While the court relied upon the aggression of parishioners, it also protected priests, more than women, against extreme actions such as assault. The decisions made by the court created a system in which violence against women could be an acceptable means for enforcing its statutes at parish level.     

康熙朝宫廷中的西洋医事活动

康熙时期西洋医学源源不断传入宫中。西洋医学的传入是通过传教士这个媒介来进行的.他们凭借在宫中的一系列医事活动,向清廷展示了一种全新的医学理念和治疗方法。西洋医学之所以在宫中有立足之地,取决于康熙皇帝对西洋医学所持的科学、客观的认同态度。     

Adversarial Map-Making in Pre-Reformation Lancashire

Abstract

'Adversarial Map-Making in Pre-Reformation Lancashire'. A map in the National Archives dated to 1531 showing part of the Fylde in Lancashire has been published on several occasions; but its relationship to another map in the National Archives has not previously been recognised. These two maps were made by the opposing parties in a dispute before the court of the Duchy of Lancaster, and may be the earliest examples of adversarial map-making in a case before an equity court. The case concerned land which had apparently long been regarded as intercommon, but which was now being claimed to be in exclusive ownership. The newly recognised map was made to illustrate recently acquired documentary evidence as to the ownership of the land in question. This map appears broadly trustworthy, and was accepted as such by the court; but the defence map seems rather to have been designed to mislead. In recent years the defence map has been regarded as evidence for the appearance of the locality concerned in the 1530s, but this study shows that it was in fact regarded by the court as unreliable, thus highlighting the need to treat all maps other than those actually commissioned by the courts themselves as partial and therefore suspect.     

盛世隐忧：从乾嘉文治看清朝由盛而衰

以盛世光环载入史册的乾隆朝在文治领域潜伏着重重隐忧。当时朝廷重视经学,而思想上却不认同民间汉学;虽然承袭庙堂理学,却对其内圣外王鲜有心得,并且压制朝野理学的发展。同时,统治者的信仰世界混乱、迷茫。嘉庆朝的经学政策略有调整,重新重视理学,又强调以勤简为政,但总体上缺少新意,无济于事,清中期遂成武功彰显而文治偏失的格局。这也是清朝由盛而衰的重要根源。     

The Qadi,the Wazir and the Da‘i: Religious and Ethnic Relations in Buyid Shiraz in the Eleventh Century

Shiraz's importance as a Buyid political capitol during the late Buyid period has been mentioned but not thoroughly analyzed. This article attempts to understand Shirazi politics under the late Buyid Abu Kalijar (r. 415/1024 to 440AH/1048CE) by tracing the careers of three prominent figures in his court: the Ismaili propagandist Al-Mu'ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi, the Sunni Qadi Abdallah al-Fazari, and Abu Kalijar's Wazir Bahram ibn Mafanna al-‘Adil. Using material from a variety of different narrative sources, it becomes clear that all three individuals used their understanding of court politics and their connections to one or more factions, preferably military factions, to gain sufficient intimacy with King Abu Kalijar to present their own point of view and to exclude other individuals from doing the same. Abu Kalijar was able to maintain sufficient contact with a variety of different factions to prevent the kind of factional warfare that was evident in Baghdad in the same period. By tracing the political strategies of these three men, the article sketches the structure of Shirazi politics and highlights the inclusiveness of Abu Kalijar's court and its relative stability compared to the Baghdad court of the same period.