<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This paper introduces the idea of studying the decision citation network of the US Supreme Court in a new fashion by focusing on this Court’s overturning of some of its prior decisions. Two departures from current practices were developed. One was to consider the phenomenon of overturning in a broader network context. The second was to treat the citations between overturning decisions and the overturned decisions as negative ties. This led to the creation of multiple signed citation networks. These networks were studied to get a better understanding of the operation of this Court. The results show that, frequently, when decisions are overturned, this is not done in a logically consistent fashion. A research agenda is proposed regarding a reexamination of <italic>stare decesis</italic>, thought to be a bedrock of the US legal system, and calling it into question as a genuine operating legal principle.</p>
</abstract>

This paper introduces the idea of studying the decision citation network of the US Supreme Court in a new fashion by focusing on this Court’s overturning of some of its prior decisions. Two departures from current practices were developed. One was to consider the phenomenon of overturning in a broader network context. The second was to treat the citations between overturning decisions and the overturned decisions as negative ties. This led to the creation of multiple signed citation networks. These networks were studied to get a better understanding of the operation of this Court. The results show that, frequently, when decisions are overturned, this is not done in a logically consistent fashion. A research agenda is proposed regarding a reexamination of stare decesis, thought to be a bedrock of the US legal system, and calling it into question as a genuine operating legal principle.

Signed Networks for the US Supreme Court Overturning its Prior Decisions

Connections

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Signed Networks for the Supreme Court Citation Network

This paper introduces the idea of studying the decision citation network of the US Supreme Court in a new fashion by focusing on this Court’s overturning of...

Signed Networks for the US Supreme Court Overturning its Prior Decisions

Published Online: Apr 26, 2019

Page range: 1 - 14

Received: Apr 02, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/connections-2019-002

Keywords
Supreme Court, Overturning decisions, Signed networks, Citation networks

© 2019 Patrick Doreian et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Signed Networks for the US Supreme Court Overturning its Prior Decisions

Published Online: Apr 26, 2019

Page range: 1 - 14

Received: Apr 02, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/connections-2019-002

KeywordsSupreme Court, Overturning decisions, Signed networks, Citation networks

© 2019 Patrick Doreian et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Supreme Court, Overturning decisions, Signed networks, Citation networks