Blindfolds Off: Judges On How They Decide - Joel Cohen cover
American Bar Association Casebook Series

All books

Blindfolds Off: Judges On How They Decide - Joel Cohen

by Joel Cohen

ISBN
9781627226790
Publisher
American Bar Association
$16.56 one-time purchase · 15% restocking fee on returns

Shipping calculated at checkout

Secure checkout

Condition guaranteed or your money back

Product details

Description

Blindfolds Off: Judges On How They Decide Joel Cohen ISBN 9781627226790

This compelling new book lifts the veil on judicial decision-making through thirteen in-depth interviews recorded in the chambers of the judges themselves. Author Joel Cohen, a practitioner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP in New York, is a skilled, persistent, yet always courteous interviewer. He selects federal district judges who have presided over high-profile, publicity-grabbing cases—cases that test the limits of traditional, formalistic approaches to judging—and centers the conversations on those very cases.

The interviews reveal much about the judges’ perspectives, yet one clear insight emerges: even under the probing questions of a perceptive interviewer, judges are often reluctant to acknowledge personal influences in their decision-making, even in the most unusual or challenging matters.

The book highlights carefully chosen, well-known cases drawn from the thousands these thirteen judges have overseen. These cases raise critical questions about justice, policy, precedent, and the law, while reflecting how the judges’ experiences and the broader currents of society may have shaped their rulings.

Readers will gain insight into whether judges are aware of the personal experiences—or “priors,” as Judge Posner describes them—that influence their judgments. When judges do acknowledge such influences, the book asks whether they are fully candid, both with themselves and the public, about the degree to which these experiences informed their decisions, or whether they conclude that fairness demands restraint from revealing these personal factors.

Blindfolds Off: Judges On How They Decide Joel Cohen ISBN 9781627226790, 978-1627226790 & 9781627226806

Author
Joel Cohen

You might also need

Students also rent these.