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Judicial Decisions and Organization Change: Some Theoretical and Empirical Notes on State Court Decisions and State Administrative Agencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Charles A. Johnson
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Abstract

This article reports on research evaluating the impact of five Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions on five Pennsylvania state agencies. Rational choice theory is used to explain several different responses to the judicial decisions: (1) initiating a search for more information, (2) conducting an extensive search, and (3) complying with the court decision and degree of compliance. The analysis demonstrates that the decision to initiate a search depended upon the agency's interpretation of the judicial decision as adverse. The extent of the search was related to the enforcement possibilities. The degree of compliance differed according to whether the agency viewed the decision as adverse and what resources the agency had at its disposal. In general, all of the agencies failed to comply actively with the state court decisions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , Fall 1979 , pp. 27 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 The Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Bradley Canon, Dean Jaros, Phil Roeder, S.S. Ulmer, Lee Sigelman, and Joel Grossman for comments on previous drafts of this article.

References

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Cases Cited

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