Appellate courts in many countries will often use a subset of the entire appellate body to
decide cases. The United States courts of appeals, the European Court of Justice, 2 and the …

A fundamental academic assumption about the federal courts of appeals is that the three-
judge panels that decide cases have been randomly configured. Scores of scholarly articles …

PANEL ASSIGNMENT IN THE FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEALS Page 1 PANEL ASSIGNMENT
IN THE FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEALS Marin K. Levyt It is common knowledge that the …

An independent and impartial judiciary is critical to the rule of law. Citizens must be able to
seek redress in the courts, confident that the identity of the judge will not impact the outcome …

The qualities of a good judge are easy to name but sometimes difficult to discern and almost
always impossible to quantify: intelligence, integrity, fairness, diligence, experience …

Unlike its US counterpart, the Supreme Court of Canada does not always sit en banc. While
the Canadian Court also has nine judges, the Chief Justice has the discretion to determine …

The composition of panels in the United States Courts of Appeals can be a matter of some
sensitivity, as President Clinton has learned. In designating members of the three-judge …

This Article explores a problem that may occur in appellate cases in which two or more
issues present themselves. In these problematic cases, the court may reach a decision as to …

Legal commentators have proposed a variety of solutions to the perceived problems of the
US courts of appeals, from splitting large circuits to assur-ing partisan balance in panel …

Federal appellate courts employ a random assignment system to select the circuit judges
who will serve on any particular threejudge panel. The premise of this system is that random …