Behavioral Jurisprudence in the United States

A jurisprudential view that features theories of human decision making. Behavioral jurisprudence attempts to explain law as emanating from the individual values of the principal official participants in the legal process. Behavioral jurisprudence had its origin among those legal realists who sought to integrate the approaches of behavioral science with the study of law and legal processes. Although judicial be- haviorists began to emerge a decade earlier, the work of C. Herman Pritchett in the 1940s is generally regarded as providing the foundation of behavioral jurisprudence. Using a quantitative methodology, Pritchett sought to explain court decisions in terms of judicial attitudes and values. Judicial behavioralism is thus an almost exclusively human-oriented approach to the examination of law. Unlike political jurisprudence, behaviorists devalue the study of legal norms as well as the political dimensions of the judicial processes.

See Also

Jurisprudence (Judicial Function) Legal Realism (Judicial Function) Political Jurisprudence (Judicial Function).

Analysis and Relevance

Behavioral jurisprudence refocused the study of public law, particularly within the discipline of political science. Like political jurisprudence, the behavioral approach represented a substantial departure from the traditional study of constitutional law and legal norms. The lines of distinction between political jurisprudents and judicial behaviorists is more difficult to establish. Even the leading behaviorists have been unable to precisely delineate behavioral and political jurisprudence as they continue to work with many of the concepts associated with the latter. Nonetheless, it is clear that the behavioral approach expanded our knowledge of judicial processes through the use of research techniques derived from such disci-plines as psychology and social psychology. Indeed, many of the findings produced through the behavioral approach are currently embraced by judicial scholars. At the same time, the general orientation of those conducting research in this area more closely resembles that of political than behavioral jurisprudence.

Notes and References

1. Definition of Behavioral Jurisprudence from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California