After the Realist Revolution : Judicial Lawmaking in an Age of Instrumentalist Common Law Jurisprudence

This book offers a sophisticated and yet fully accessible account of modern lawmaking by appellate courts. It highlights the many ways in which the current approach to this important societal task is incompatible with the practices and procedures that have remained in place from an earlier era.

After the Realist Revolution extends the existing academic study of American common law into new and previously unexplored areas. Marin Scordato examines the conventional understanding of appellate court lawmaking and the profound change in the common understanding of that activity that occurred during the mid-twentieth century. Scordato argues that this change in the conventional account of common law can be best understood as an authentic paradigm shift, akin to those described by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The book also sheds light on the ways in which the current instrumentalist approach to appellate court lawmaking is influenced and, in some respects, compromised by the structures and procedures that were created during the prior formalist era. Thorough and insightful, After the Realist Revolution is an ideal resource for legal scholars and general readers interested in the nature and evolution of American common law.