Issi Rosen-zvi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Issi Rosen-zvi

Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in... more Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser-pays jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards in Israel, which vests judges with discretion to award fees, with loser pays operating as a norm. The 2641 cases studied constitute nearly all cases terminated by judgment in district courts in 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012. Given many fee denials and fees that are well below client payments to attorneys when awarded, the Israeli fee system could reasonably be characterized as being more American than English. Moreover, judges use their discretion in a manner that reflects redistributive sensitivity. Fees were awarded to prevailing parties in 72.8%

University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 2014

Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in... more Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser-pays jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards in Israel, which vests judges with discretion to award fees, with loser pays operating as a norm. The 2641 cases studied constitute nearly all cases terminated by judgment in district courts in 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012. Given many fee denials and fees that are well below client payments to attorneys when awarded, the Israeli fee system could reasonably be characterized as being more American than English. Moreover, judges use their discretion in a manner that reflects redistributive sensitivity. Fees were awarded to prevailing parties in 72.8%

More than one hundred executive departments and agencies operate through systems of regional offi... more More than one hundred executive departments and agencies operate through systems of regional offices strategically located around the country. Currently, these regions are misguidedly viewed as mere enforcers and implementers of central policies. We propose two alternative visions of federal regions—regions as mediators and regions as coordinators. These two visions have deep roots in the rich but forgotten history of U.S. public administration. In the New Deal era, federal regions were understood as mediating entities between the central government’s centralizing efforts and regional needs and conditions. With the expansion of federal programs and agencies in the 1950s and 1960s, federal regions were gradually reconceived as vehicles for coordination among the different branches of the administration as well as between the federal government and the states. Since the 1980s, however, federal regions have been seen as part of the oversized federal government and have thus been mistru...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2012

We thank Na'ama Schlam and Noam Guttman for their invaluable research assistance and insightful c... more We thank Na'ama Schlam and Noam Guttman for their invaluable research assistance and insightful comments, as well as for coordinating the student work in a superb manner. We are also grateful to Efrat Zilberbush, Na'ama Daniel, Nitzan Ilani, and Gadi Ezra for their assistance in collecting the data.

Social Science Research Network, 2012

The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. ... more The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. We argue that, although space was present in legal analysis prior to this turn, the consolidation of these various studies, as well as their understanding as belonging to a distinct branch of legal theory, has had three important consequences. First, spatial analysis allows a more sophisticated understanding of the interrelations between law and society. Second, the study of legal geography enables integration of what seem to be unrelated and distinct legal fields, with the underlying logic, purposes and values that they embody. Third, the spatial turn in legal theory is part of the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities in that it fills the gap left by studies that do not take law into account, or which suffer from a crude understanding of law. Critical legal geographers have shown that law is not merely a passive medium through which states impose their spatial policies; it...

This article questions one of the most deeply-rooted taxonomies of modern legal thought, that div... more This article questions one of the most deeply-rooted taxonomies of modern legal thought, that dividing civil and criminal procedure. It highlights a fundamental shortcoming of our legal system that stems from its failure to provide adequate procedural protections to individuals who are sued by the government or large organizational entities and face severe civil sanctions, while ensuring sweeping procedural safeguards for people and institutions facing only trivial criminal sanctions. Many justifications have been offered for the civil-criminal rift in procedure. Some argue that the distinction rests on utilitarian grounds, while others point to egalitarian rationales. Still others invoke the expressive role played by procedure, with others focusing on the unique role of the state in a liberal democracy. The article challenges each of these rationales, showing that they are obsolete, if not completely unfounded, and proposes a simple alternative: cutting the Gordian knot binding substance to procedure and replacing the current bifurcated civil-criminal procedural regime with a model running along two axes: the balance of power between the litigating parties and the severity of the potential sanction or remedy. The balance of power axis refers to the model's two sets of procedural rules, aimed at remedying asymmetry problems inherent to litigation. One set of rules would govern symmetrical litigation, that is, where both parties are either institutional entities (comprised of both governmental bodies and large organizational entities such as big corporations and financial institutions) or else individuals (including small businesses); a second set of rules would govern asymmetric litigation, involving an individual on one side and an institutional entity on the other. The model's second axis focuses on the degree of harm that would be generated by an adverse decision for the litigating parties, irrespective of whether the substantive legal regime governing the dispute is civil or criminal. Applying these two parameters, our proposed procedural regime maps out the entire procedural landscape. The resulting redistribution of procedural protections diverges significantly from the current regime. The article shows that the proposed model, as a regime based on the true goals of procedure, in fact, better realizes the ends underlying the rationales used to justify the current procedural regime. It concludes with some remarks about the feasibility of such a reform.

The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. ... more The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. We argue that, although space was present in legal analysis prior to this turn, the consolidation of these various studies, as well as their understanding as belonging to a distinct branch of legal theory, has had three important consequences. First, spatial analysis allows a more sophisticated understanding of the interrelations between law and society. Second, the study of legal geography enables integration of what seem to be unrelated and distinct legal fields, with the underlying logic, purposes and values that they embody. Third, the spatial turn in legal theory is part of the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities in that it fills the gap left by studies that do not take law into account, or which suffer from a crude understanding of law. Critical legal geographers have shown that law is not merely a passive medium through which states impose their spatial policies; it is a productive force with a life of its own, so to speak, which shapes material, social and mental subjective spaces.

The Law & Ethics of Human Rights

This article examines the process for the eviction of tenants (PET), which offers landlords a swi... more This article examines the process for the eviction of tenants (PET), which offers landlords a swift path for obtaining an eviction order against their tenants, as a case study exposing the politics of procedure. It shows that the PET is but one stage in a longstanding battle waged between two interest groups—landlords and tenants—involving both substantive law and procedural law. But while the story of their conflict over substantive law, fought in the parliament through the regular legislative process, is well-known, the story of the procedural amendments, despite their immense impact, remains shrouded in mystery and is told here for the first time. The reason for that, we argue, is that despite the vast impact of procedure on substantive right, many in the Israeli legal system mistakenly view civil procedure rules as highly technical and neutral directives for the day-to-day operation of the litigation process. The conclusion from such a view is that rulemaking should be left to e...

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2016

Cost and Fee Allocation in Civil Procedure, 2011

Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 2011

Theoretical Inquiries in LAw, Vol. 12, pp. 603-663 (2011)

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

ABSTRACT Attorney fees fund litigation yet little is known about fees in most cases. Fee data are... more ABSTRACT Attorney fees fund litigation yet little is known about fees in most cases. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser pays, jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards in Israel, which vests judges with discretion to award fees, with loser pays operating as a norm. The 2641 cases studied constitute nearly all cases terminated by judgment in district courts in 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012. Given many fee denials, and fees when awarded being well below client payments to attorneys, the fee system could reasonably be characterized as being more American than English. Fees were awarded to prevailing parties in 72.8 percent of cases. Judges often exercised their discretion to protect losing litigants, especially individuals, from having to pay fees. In tort cases won by individuals against corporate defendants, corporations paid their own fees plus plaintiffs’ fees in 99 percent of the cases; corporate defendants that prevailed in such cases paid their own fees 48 percent of the time. Asymmetry between plaintiffs and defendants existed. In cases with fee awards, the mean and median fee paid to prevailing plaintiffs was 110,000 shekels (NIS) and 31,000 NIS, respectively; the mean and median fee paid to prevailing defendants was 49,000 NIS and 25,000 NIS, respectively. Plaintiffs prevailed in 54.8 of cases between individuals but received 90 percent of the fees. Expected award amounts varied by case category and party status. Fees were significantly correlated with damages recoveries in plaintiff victories and with time on the docket. In contract and property cases, but not in tort cases, fees declined as a percent of recovery as the recovery increased.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

This Essay reports the results of an empirical study of the Israel Supreme Court (ISC). It covers... more This Essay reports the results of an empirical study of the Israel Supreme Court (ISC). It covers the outcomes of 3,562 cases (as of this writing), all decided in 2006 and 2007, and describes the cases by subject area, litigantpair characteristics, and source of jurisdiction-mandatory or discretionary. In mandatory-jurisdiction cases ending with clear affirmances or reversals, the ISC affirmed lower court rulings in about 75% of district court criminal case appeals and about 67% of district court civil case appeals. In discretionary-jurisdiction cases, the ISC rarely granted review. It agreed to review about 6 % of petitions in criminal cases and about 15 % of petitions in civil cases. In discretionary cases in which the ISC did grant review, it tended to reverse at a much higher rate than in mandatory-jurisdiction cases, with an affirmance rate of 55 % in criminal cases and 31 % in civil cases. Combining denials of review with affirmances resulted in criminal case litigants obtaining relief from the ISC in 2.3 % of appellate filings, and civil case litigants obtaining relief in 11.0% of appellate filings. The government fared far better than other litigants in obtaining reversals of lower court rulings and in securing review of those rulings. Sentencing issues dominated the criminal docket, and criminal cases predominated over civil cases. Reversal rates were not substantially different from those in cases with analogous jurisdiction in U.S. state courts of last resort except in discretionary-jurisdiction civil cases. The ISC tended to reverse such cases at a higher rate than U.S. courts.

Fla. St. UL Rev., 2010

Copyright (c) 2010 Florida State University Law Review Florida State University Law Review. Sprin... more Copyright (c) 2010 Florida State University Law Review Florida State University Law Review. Spring, 2010. 37 Fla. St. UL Rev. 717. LENGTH: 24344 words Just Fee Shifting. NAME: Issachar Rosen-Zvi*. BIO: * Associate Professor, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law. ...

Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 2000

New modes of environmental regulation are said to have transcended the public/private divide. The... more New modes of environmental regulation are said to have transcended the public/private divide. These new regulatory schemes-referred to as non-coercive orderings, self-regulation, co-regulation, metaregulation and social regulation-set aside the formal nature of the regulating entity, the regulated entity, and the tools of regulation. Instead of asking whether the means, objects and formulators of the regulation are public or private, the focus lies on the substance and effectiveness of the regulation in mitigating environmental harms. In this Article we argue that despite these claims, often advanced by new governance proponents, the public/private divide in in fact alive and well, informing and impacting the ways in which various regulatory schemes are justified and legitimated. We exemplify this argument through an analysis of the role of three entities in international environmental regulation: the state (and its perception as sovereign), local governments, and civil society entities (both NGOs and business corporations). This Article then suggests three consequences of the persistence of the public/private dichotomy and its denial: it produces a "tilt" towards the private; it tends to hide conflicts and disagreements, projecting an image of a frictionless world; and it prevents an imagination of a different world that transcends the structure of social life embedded in it.

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2013

ABSTRACT Appellate adjudication frequently involves small group decision making. Role responsibil... more ABSTRACT Appellate adjudication frequently involves small group decision making. Role responsibility theory and experimental evidence suggest that high status group members may disproportionately influence other members. A judicial panel’s presiding justice and the justice who writes a case’s opinion thus may influence other justices’ votes. We compare justices’ voting patterns in cases in which they presided and wrote opinions with their voting patterns when they did not preside or write opinions. The data consist of 1,410 mandatory jurisdiction criminal law cases decided by the Israel Supreme Court in 2006 and 2007. Voting patterns varied significantly with presiding and nonpresiding status. On average justices were 4.5% more likely to vote in their preferred direction when presiding than as mere panel members, which corresponds to an increase of about 28% given a baseline rate of voting for defendants of 16%. Justices’ colleagues’ voting patterns significantly changed when particular justices did and did not preside. Colleagues were 50% more likely to vote for defendants when one justice did not preside compared with when he did. Some justices’ voting patterns varied based on opinion-writing status. This is likely due to the nonrandom process of opinion assignment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2012

We study 1,410 mandatory jurisdiction and 48 discretionary jurisdiction criminal law case outcome... more We study 1,410 mandatory jurisdiction and 48 discretionary jurisdiction criminal law case outcomes in cases appealed to the Israel Supreme Court in 2006 and 2007 to assess influences on case outcomes. A methodological innovation is accounting for factors-case specialization, seniority, and workload-that modify random case assignment. To the extent one accounts for nonrandom assignment, one can infer that case outcome differences are judge effects. In mandatory jurisdiction cases, individual justices cast 3,986 votes and differed by as much as 15 percent in the probability of casting a vote favoring defendants. Female justices were about 2 to 3 percent more likely than male justices to vote for defendants but this effect is sensitive to including one justice. Defendant gender was associated with outcome, with female defendants about 17 percent more likely than male defendants to receive a favorable vote on appeal. Our data's samples of mandatory and discretionary jurisdiction cases allow us to show that studies limited to discretionary jurisdiction case outcomes can distort perceptions of judges' preferences. Justices' ordinal rank in rate of voting for defendants or the state was uncorrelated across mandatory and discretionary jurisdiction cases. For example, the justice who sat on the most criminal cases was the fourth (of 16 justices) most favorable to the state in mandatory jurisdiction cases but the 12th most favorable in discretionary jurisdiction cases. This result casts doubt on some inferences based on studies of judges on discretionary jurisdiction courts, such as the U.S. Supreme Court, in which only discretionary case outcomes are observed.

Minn. JL Sci. & Tech., 2011

In the run-up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen (COP-15), 1 environmentalists, scientist... more In the run-up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen (COP-15), 1 environmentalists, scientists, and politicians referred to it as a historical event. As COP-15 drew near, climate change activists and United Nations (UN) officials had high hopes that December 2009 would be a watershed moment for creating a new carbon-restricted global economy for decades to come. Furthermore, following the result of the 2008 American presidential elections, many in the international community felt that the path was clear to finally include the United States in the agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, 2 and that developing nations-among them China and India-would also take on some binding and enforceable restrictions on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The European Parliament even had lofty expectations that an

Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in... more Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser-pays jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards in Israel, which vests judges with discretion to award fees, with loser pays operating as a norm. The 2641 cases studied constitute nearly all cases terminated by judgment in district courts in 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012. Given many fee denials and fees that are well below client payments to attorneys when awarded, the Israeli fee system could reasonably be characterized as being more American than English. Moreover, judges use their discretion in a manner that reflects redistributive sensitivity. Fees were awarded to prevailing parties in 72.8%

University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 2014

Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in... more Attorneys' fees fuel litigation, yet little is known about fees. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser-pays jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards in Israel, which vests judges with discretion to award fees, with loser pays operating as a norm. The 2641 cases studied constitute nearly all cases terminated by judgment in district courts in 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012. Given many fee denials and fees that are well below client payments to attorneys when awarded, the Israeli fee system could reasonably be characterized as being more American than English. Moreover, judges use their discretion in a manner that reflects redistributive sensitivity. Fees were awarded to prevailing parties in 72.8%

More than one hundred executive departments and agencies operate through systems of regional offi... more More than one hundred executive departments and agencies operate through systems of regional offices strategically located around the country. Currently, these regions are misguidedly viewed as mere enforcers and implementers of central policies. We propose two alternative visions of federal regions—regions as mediators and regions as coordinators. These two visions have deep roots in the rich but forgotten history of U.S. public administration. In the New Deal era, federal regions were understood as mediating entities between the central government’s centralizing efforts and regional needs and conditions. With the expansion of federal programs and agencies in the 1950s and 1960s, federal regions were gradually reconceived as vehicles for coordination among the different branches of the administration as well as between the federal government and the states. Since the 1980s, however, federal regions have been seen as part of the oversized federal government and have thus been mistru...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2012

We thank Na'ama Schlam and Noam Guttman for their invaluable research assistance and insightful c... more We thank Na'ama Schlam and Noam Guttman for their invaluable research assistance and insightful comments, as well as for coordinating the student work in a superb manner. We are also grateful to Efrat Zilberbush, Na'ama Daniel, Nitzan Ilani, and Gadi Ezra for their assistance in collecting the data.

Social Science Research Network, 2012

The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. ... more The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. We argue that, although space was present in legal analysis prior to this turn, the consolidation of these various studies, as well as their understanding as belonging to a distinct branch of legal theory, has had three important consequences. First, spatial analysis allows a more sophisticated understanding of the interrelations between law and society. Second, the study of legal geography enables integration of what seem to be unrelated and distinct legal fields, with the underlying logic, purposes and values that they embody. Third, the spatial turn in legal theory is part of the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities in that it fills the gap left by studies that do not take law into account, or which suffer from a crude understanding of law. Critical legal geographers have shown that law is not merely a passive medium through which states impose their spatial policies; it...

This article questions one of the most deeply-rooted taxonomies of modern legal thought, that div... more This article questions one of the most deeply-rooted taxonomies of modern legal thought, that dividing civil and criminal procedure. It highlights a fundamental shortcoming of our legal system that stems from its failure to provide adequate procedural protections to individuals who are sued by the government or large organizational entities and face severe civil sanctions, while ensuring sweeping procedural safeguards for people and institutions facing only trivial criminal sanctions. Many justifications have been offered for the civil-criminal rift in procedure. Some argue that the distinction rests on utilitarian grounds, while others point to egalitarian rationales. Still others invoke the expressive role played by procedure, with others focusing on the unique role of the state in a liberal democracy. The article challenges each of these rationales, showing that they are obsolete, if not completely unfounded, and proposes a simple alternative: cutting the Gordian knot binding substance to procedure and replacing the current bifurcated civil-criminal procedural regime with a model running along two axes: the balance of power between the litigating parties and the severity of the potential sanction or remedy. The balance of power axis refers to the model's two sets of procedural rules, aimed at remedying asymmetry problems inherent to litigation. One set of rules would govern symmetrical litigation, that is, where both parties are either institutional entities (comprised of both governmental bodies and large organizational entities such as big corporations and financial institutions) or else individuals (including small businesses); a second set of rules would govern asymmetric litigation, involving an individual on one side and an institutional entity on the other. The model's second axis focuses on the degree of harm that would be generated by an adverse decision for the litigating parties, irrespective of whether the substantive legal regime governing the dispute is civil or criminal. Applying these two parameters, our proposed procedural regime maps out the entire procedural landscape. The resulting redistribution of procedural protections diverges significantly from the current regime. The article shows that the proposed model, as a regime based on the true goals of procedure, in fact, better realizes the ends underlying the rationales used to justify the current procedural regime. It concludes with some remarks about the feasibility of such a reform.

The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. ... more The article explores the spatial turn which has taken place in legal theory since the mid-1990s. We argue that, although space was present in legal analysis prior to this turn, the consolidation of these various studies, as well as their understanding as belonging to a distinct branch of legal theory, has had three important consequences. First, spatial analysis allows a more sophisticated understanding of the interrelations between law and society. Second, the study of legal geography enables integration of what seem to be unrelated and distinct legal fields, with the underlying logic, purposes and values that they embody. Third, the spatial turn in legal theory is part of the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities in that it fills the gap left by studies that do not take law into account, or which suffer from a crude understanding of law. Critical legal geographers have shown that law is not merely a passive medium through which states impose their spatial policies; it is a productive force with a life of its own, so to speak, which shapes material, social and mental subjective spaces.

The Law & Ethics of Human Rights

This article examines the process for the eviction of tenants (PET), which offers landlords a swi... more This article examines the process for the eviction of tenants (PET), which offers landlords a swift path for obtaining an eviction order against their tenants, as a case study exposing the politics of procedure. It shows that the PET is but one stage in a longstanding battle waged between two interest groups—landlords and tenants—involving both substantive law and procedural law. But while the story of their conflict over substantive law, fought in the parliament through the regular legislative process, is well-known, the story of the procedural amendments, despite their immense impact, remains shrouded in mystery and is told here for the first time. The reason for that, we argue, is that despite the vast impact of procedure on substantive right, many in the Israeli legal system mistakenly view civil procedure rules as highly technical and neutral directives for the day-to-day operation of the litigation process. The conclusion from such a view is that rulemaking should be left to e...

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2016

Cost and Fee Allocation in Civil Procedure, 2011

Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 2011

Theoretical Inquiries in LAw, Vol. 12, pp. 603-663 (2011)

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

ABSTRACT Attorney fees fund litigation yet little is known about fees in most cases. Fee data are... more ABSTRACT Attorney fees fund litigation yet little is known about fees in most cases. Fee data are rarely available in the United States or in English rule, loser pays, jurisdictions. This Article analyzes fee awards in Israel, which vests judges with discretion to award fees, with loser pays operating as a norm. The 2641 cases studied constitute nearly all cases terminated by judgment in district courts in 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012. Given many fee denials, and fees when awarded being well below client payments to attorneys, the fee system could reasonably be characterized as being more American than English. Fees were awarded to prevailing parties in 72.8 percent of cases. Judges often exercised their discretion to protect losing litigants, especially individuals, from having to pay fees. In tort cases won by individuals against corporate defendants, corporations paid their own fees plus plaintiffs’ fees in 99 percent of the cases; corporate defendants that prevailed in such cases paid their own fees 48 percent of the time. Asymmetry between plaintiffs and defendants existed. In cases with fee awards, the mean and median fee paid to prevailing plaintiffs was 110,000 shekels (NIS) and 31,000 NIS, respectively; the mean and median fee paid to prevailing defendants was 49,000 NIS and 25,000 NIS, respectively. Plaintiffs prevailed in 54.8 of cases between individuals but received 90 percent of the fees. Expected award amounts varied by case category and party status. Fees were significantly correlated with damages recoveries in plaintiff victories and with time on the docket. In contract and property cases, but not in tort cases, fees declined as a percent of recovery as the recovery increased.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

This Essay reports the results of an empirical study of the Israel Supreme Court (ISC). It covers... more This Essay reports the results of an empirical study of the Israel Supreme Court (ISC). It covers the outcomes of 3,562 cases (as of this writing), all decided in 2006 and 2007, and describes the cases by subject area, litigantpair characteristics, and source of jurisdiction-mandatory or discretionary. In mandatory-jurisdiction cases ending with clear affirmances or reversals, the ISC affirmed lower court rulings in about 75% of district court criminal case appeals and about 67% of district court civil case appeals. In discretionary-jurisdiction cases, the ISC rarely granted review. It agreed to review about 6 % of petitions in criminal cases and about 15 % of petitions in civil cases. In discretionary cases in which the ISC did grant review, it tended to reverse at a much higher rate than in mandatory-jurisdiction cases, with an affirmance rate of 55 % in criminal cases and 31 % in civil cases. Combining denials of review with affirmances resulted in criminal case litigants obtaining relief from the ISC in 2.3 % of appellate filings, and civil case litigants obtaining relief in 11.0% of appellate filings. The government fared far better than other litigants in obtaining reversals of lower court rulings and in securing review of those rulings. Sentencing issues dominated the criminal docket, and criminal cases predominated over civil cases. Reversal rates were not substantially different from those in cases with analogous jurisdiction in U.S. state courts of last resort except in discretionary-jurisdiction civil cases. The ISC tended to reverse such cases at a higher rate than U.S. courts.

Fla. St. UL Rev., 2010

Copyright (c) 2010 Florida State University Law Review Florida State University Law Review. Sprin... more Copyright (c) 2010 Florida State University Law Review Florida State University Law Review. Spring, 2010. 37 Fla. St. UL Rev. 717. LENGTH: 24344 words Just Fee Shifting. NAME: Issachar Rosen-Zvi*. BIO: * Associate Professor, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law. ...

Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 2000

New modes of environmental regulation are said to have transcended the public/private divide. The... more New modes of environmental regulation are said to have transcended the public/private divide. These new regulatory schemes-referred to as non-coercive orderings, self-regulation, co-regulation, metaregulation and social regulation-set aside the formal nature of the regulating entity, the regulated entity, and the tools of regulation. Instead of asking whether the means, objects and formulators of the regulation are public or private, the focus lies on the substance and effectiveness of the regulation in mitigating environmental harms. In this Article we argue that despite these claims, often advanced by new governance proponents, the public/private divide in in fact alive and well, informing and impacting the ways in which various regulatory schemes are justified and legitimated. We exemplify this argument through an analysis of the role of three entities in international environmental regulation: the state (and its perception as sovereign), local governments, and civil society entities (both NGOs and business corporations). This Article then suggests three consequences of the persistence of the public/private dichotomy and its denial: it produces a "tilt" towards the private; it tends to hide conflicts and disagreements, projecting an image of a frictionless world; and it prevents an imagination of a different world that transcends the structure of social life embedded in it.

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2013

ABSTRACT Appellate adjudication frequently involves small group decision making. Role responsibil... more ABSTRACT Appellate adjudication frequently involves small group decision making. Role responsibility theory and experimental evidence suggest that high status group members may disproportionately influence other members. A judicial panel’s presiding justice and the justice who writes a case’s opinion thus may influence other justices’ votes. We compare justices’ voting patterns in cases in which they presided and wrote opinions with their voting patterns when they did not preside or write opinions. The data consist of 1,410 mandatory jurisdiction criminal law cases decided by the Israel Supreme Court in 2006 and 2007. Voting patterns varied significantly with presiding and nonpresiding status. On average justices were 4.5% more likely to vote in their preferred direction when presiding than as mere panel members, which corresponds to an increase of about 28% given a baseline rate of voting for defendants of 16%. Justices’ colleagues’ voting patterns significantly changed when particular justices did and did not preside. Colleagues were 50% more likely to vote for defendants when one justice did not preside compared with when he did. Some justices’ voting patterns varied based on opinion-writing status. This is likely due to the nonrandom process of opinion assignment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2012

We study 1,410 mandatory jurisdiction and 48 discretionary jurisdiction criminal law case outcome... more We study 1,410 mandatory jurisdiction and 48 discretionary jurisdiction criminal law case outcomes in cases appealed to the Israel Supreme Court in 2006 and 2007 to assess influences on case outcomes. A methodological innovation is accounting for factors-case specialization, seniority, and workload-that modify random case assignment. To the extent one accounts for nonrandom assignment, one can infer that case outcome differences are judge effects. In mandatory jurisdiction cases, individual justices cast 3,986 votes and differed by as much as 15 percent in the probability of casting a vote favoring defendants. Female justices were about 2 to 3 percent more likely than male justices to vote for defendants but this effect is sensitive to including one justice. Defendant gender was associated with outcome, with female defendants about 17 percent more likely than male defendants to receive a favorable vote on appeal. Our data's samples of mandatory and discretionary jurisdiction cases allow us to show that studies limited to discretionary jurisdiction case outcomes can distort perceptions of judges' preferences. Justices' ordinal rank in rate of voting for defendants or the state was uncorrelated across mandatory and discretionary jurisdiction cases. For example, the justice who sat on the most criminal cases was the fourth (of 16 justices) most favorable to the state in mandatory jurisdiction cases but the 12th most favorable in discretionary jurisdiction cases. This result casts doubt on some inferences based on studies of judges on discretionary jurisdiction courts, such as the U.S. Supreme Court, in which only discretionary case outcomes are observed.

Minn. JL Sci. & Tech., 2011

In the run-up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen (COP-15), 1 environmentalists, scientist... more In the run-up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen (COP-15), 1 environmentalists, scientists, and politicians referred to it as a historical event. As COP-15 drew near, climate change activists and United Nations (UN) officials had high hopes that December 2009 would be a watershed moment for creating a new carbon-restricted global economy for decades to come. Furthermore, following the result of the 2008 American presidential elections, many in the international community felt that the path was clear to finally include the United States in the agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, 2 and that developing nations-among them China and India-would also take on some binding and enforceable restrictions on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The European Parliament even had lofty expectations that an