http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/478021

The courts and social policy

This book examines the capacity of the courts to make and implement social policy, focusing on how issues emerge in litigation, how courts obtain their information, how judges use social science data, how legal solutions to social problems are devised, and what happens to judge-made social policy after decrees leave the courthouse. After a general analysis of the adjudication process as it bears on social policy-making, the author presents four case studies of litigation involving urban affairs, educational resources, juvenile courts and delinquency, and police behavior. In each case study, the assumptions and evidence with which the courts approached their policy problems are matched against data about the social settings from which the cases arose and the effects of the court decrees. From his analysis of adjudication and the findings of his case studies, the author concludes that the resources of the courts are not adequate to meet the new challenges confronting them. He suggests various improvements, but warns against changes that might impair the traditional strengths of the judicial process. (Author/JG).

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