Multiple Constraint Satisfaction in Judging

Details

Author(s):
Publish Date:
February 8, 2010
Publication Title:
The Psychology of Judicial Decision-Making
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Place of Publication:
New York
Editor(s):
  • David E. Klein,
  • Gregory Mitchell
Format:
Book, Section
Citation(s):
  • Jennifer K. Robbennolt, Robert J. MacCoun, and John M. Darley, Multiple Constraint Satisfaction in Judging, in The Psychology of Judicial Decision-Making, David E. Klein and Gregory Mitchell eds., New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Abstract

Different models of judicial decision making highlight particular goals. Traditional legal theory posits that in making decisions judges strive to reach the correct legal decision as dictated by precedent. Attitudinal and strategic models focuses on the ways in which judges further their preferred policies. The managerial model emphasizes the increasing caseload pressures that judges at all levels face. Each model accurately captures some of what every judge does some of the time, but a sophisticated understanding of judicial decision making should explicitly incorporate the notion that judges simultaneously attempt to further numerous, disparate, and often conflicting, objectives. We offer a preliminary account of a more psychologically plausible account of judicial cognition and motivation, based on principles of goal management in a constraint satisfaction network.