Judicial-Impact Statements - Administration, Behavior, and Politics (From Politics of Judicial Reform, P 151-163, 1982, Philip L Dubois, ed. - See NCJ-84771)

• NCJ Number: 84779
• Author(s): G Gallas
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Lexington Books
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This selection examines some of the political dimensions and ramifications of current issues on the agenda of court reformers and use of judicial impact statements.

Abstract

Basically, judicial reform means political reform through reallocations of power from local to State and traditional political power centers to modern bureaucratic power centers. In recognition of this fact, Chief Justice Burger encouraged the use of judicial impact statements over 10 years ago. These statements were designed to provide a systematic and scientifically based forecast of the likely events that legislation under consideration would have on the courts. However, various Federal executive agencies' experiences with impact statements have been unsatisfactory, and the statements have not been considered adequate decisionmaking tools. Judicial impact statements would change the nature of the political discourse between courts and legislative bodies and would focus legislative attention on centralized judicial authorities at the expense of local court judges and managers. The most significant aspect of current proposals for the use of judicial impact statements are new procedure's and modes of discourse accompanying the statements to aid in change implementation. Thirteen notes and 34 references are provided.