The Supreme Court of the United States of America is the highest court in the USA and hence the decisions that it lays out are of immense political and social importance.
One way in which the US Supreme Court justifies its decisions is by the use of precedents. It is a legitimizing strategy as current decisions are hence not motivated by political ideologies but rather dictated by a binding prior decision, a precedent. Hence, the Supreme Court is not inventing new law but applying existing case law to a new situation. In this way over time, stability is ensured in the legal system, as it constrains how courts can decide.
Spearheaded by centre director Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, together with post-doctoral researchers and Tracy Loh, this research looks at the decisions laid out by the Supreme Courts and the precedents that were cited for these decisions. We seek to understand the citation practices of the Supreme Courts and whether and how they have changed over time.