Abstract
This paper examines how the organization of a civil-law judiciary—the German labour court system—shapes court performance. It is argued that civil-law judiciaries can be considered as internal labour markets in which the main incentive derives from career opportunities. Resulting hypotheses are tested on data for nine German Labour Courts of Appeal (Landesarbeitsgerichte) over the period 1980–1998. Two performance measures are computed: the confirmation rate and a productivity measure. The confirmation rate captures how often decisions are upheld in an appeal at the Federal Labour Court. Court productivity is measured by a score derived via data envelopment analysis (DEA) and includes as outputs the number of finished cases and the number of published decisions. Regression analyses show: Courts employing more judges with a Ph.D. are more productive, but write decisions that are less often confirmed by the Federal Labour Court. Courts employing judges with higher ex ante promotion probabilities are less productive and write decisions that are less often confirmed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beck, N. & Katz, J. N. (1995). “What to do (and not to do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data.” American Political Science Review. 89, 634–647.
Bydlinski, F. (1985). “Hauptpositionen zum Richterrecht.” Juristenzeitung 40, 149–155.
Charnes, A., Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E. (1978). “Measuring the Efficiency of Decision Making Units.” European Journal of Operational Research 2, 429–444.
Choi, S. & Gulati, M. (2004). “A Tournament of Judges?” California Law Review. 92, 299ff.
Cohen, M. A. (1991). “Explaining Judicial Behaviour or What’s “Unconstitutional” about the Sentencing Commission?” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. 7, 183–199.
Cohen, M. A. (1992). “The Motives of Judges: Empirical Evidence from Antitrust Sentencing.” International Review of Law and Economics. 12, 13–30.
Cooper, W. W., Seiford, L. M. & Tone, K. (2000). Data Envelopment Analysis: A Comprehensive Text with Models, Applications, References, and DEA-Solver Software, Boston et al. Kluwer.
Cooter, R. D. (1983). “The Objectives of Private and Public Judges.” Public Choice. 41, 107–132.
Fabel, O. (1996). “Richterhierarchien und die Verbreitung der Ö konomischen Analyse des Rechts.” Zeitschrift fü r Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften. 116, 1–13.
Gibbs, M. (1994). “Testing Tournaments? An Appraisal of the Theory and Evidence.” Labor Law Journal. 45, 493–500.
Hanssen, F. A. (2004). “Is there a Politically Optimal Level of Judicial Indepenence?” American Economic Review. 94, 712–729.
Higgins, R. S. & Rubin, P. H. (1980). “Judicial Discretion.” Journal of Legal Studies. 9, 129–138.
Kaplow, L. (1992). “Rules versus Standards: An Economic Analysis.” Duke Law Journal. 42, 557–629.
Kittelsen, Sverre A. C., & Fö rsund, F. R. (1992). “Efficiency Analysis of Norwegian District Courts.” Journal of Productivity Analysis. 3, 277–306.
Kornhauser, L. A. (2000). “Judicial Organization and Administration.” In Boudewijn Bourckaert & Gerrit De Geest (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Law and Economics Volume VII. The Economics of Crime and Litigation. Cheltenham: Elgar, pp. 27–44.
Landes, William M. & Posner, R. A. (1976). “Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.” Journal of Legal Studies. 5, 249–307.
Landes, W. M. & Posner, R. A. (1979). “Adjudication as a Private Good.” Journal of Legal Studies. 8, 235–284.
Lazear, Edward P. & Rosen, S. (1981). “Rank-order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts.” Journal of Political Economy. 89, 841–64.
Lewin, A. Y., Morey, R. C. & Cook, T. J. (1982). “Evaluating the Administrative Efficiency of Courts.” International Journal of Management Science. 10, 401–411.
Maitra, P. & Smyth, R. (2004). “Judicial Independence, Judicial Promotion and the Enforcement of Legislative Wealth Transfer - An Empirical Study of the New Zealand High Court.” European Journal of Law and Economics. 17, 209–235.
Mattei, U. & Pardolesi, R. (1991). “Law and Economics in Civil Law Countries: A Comparative Approach.” International Review of Law and Economics. 11, 265–275.
Milgrom, P. & Roberts, J. (1988), “An Economic Approach to Influence Activities in Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology, Supplement. 94, 154–179.
Ogus, A. I. (1992). “Information, Error Costs and Regulation.” International Review of Law and Economics. 12, 411–421.
Pedraja-Chaparro, F. & Salina-Jiménez, J. (1996). “An Assessment of the Efficiency of Spanish Courts Using DEA.” Applied Economics. 28, 1391–1403.
Posner, R. A. (1993). “What do Judges Maximize? (The Same Thing Everybody Else Does).” Supreme Court Economic Review. 3, 1–41.
Ramseyer, M. J. & Rasmusen, E. B. (1997). “Judicial Independence in a Civil Law Regime: The Evidence from Japan.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. 13, 259–286.
Ramseyer, M. J. & Rasmusen, E. B. (1999). “Why the Japanese Taxpayer Always Loses.” Southern California Law Review. 72, 72–95.
Ramseyer, M. J. & Rasmusen, E. B. (2001a). “Why is the Japanese Conviction Rate so High?” Journal of Legal Studies. 30(1), 53–251.
Ramseyer, M. J. & Rasmusen, E. B. (2001b). “Why are Japanese Judges so Conservative in Politically Charged Cases?” American Political Science Review. 95, 331–44.
Rosen, S. (1986). “Prizes and Incentives in Elimination Tournaments.” Amercian Economic Review. 76, 701–715.
Rosenbaum, W. (1982). “Die Wirkungen des Arbeitsrechts auf die Beziehungen zwischen Arbeitnehmern und Arbeitgebern im Betrieb.” Leviathan. 10, 392–423.
Rubin, P. H. (2000). “Judge-made Law. In Boudewijn Bouckaert and Gerrit de Geest (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Law and Economics. Vol V. The Economics of Crime and Litigation. Cheltenham: Elgar, pp. 543–558.
Rü thers, B. (2002). “Demokratischer Rechtsstaat oder oligarchischer Richterstaat?” Juristenzeitung. 57, 365–416.
Salzberger, E. & Fenn, P. (1999). “Judicial Independence: Some Evidence from the English Court of Appeal.” Journal of Law and Economics. 42, 831–847.
Schmidt, K. & Luczak, S. (1994). Der Berufsrichter in der Arbeitsgerichtsbarkeit. In Die Arbeitsgerichtsbarkeit. Festschrift zum 100jährigen Bestehen des Deutschen Arbeitsgerichtsverbandes. Neuwied: Luchterhand, pp. 221–251.
Schneider, M. (2004). “Careers in a Judicial Hierarchy.” International Journal of Manpower. 24, 431–446.
Schnellenbach, H. (1999). “Kriterien der Bewertung richterlicher Leistung.” Recht im Amt. 161–167.
Shapiro, M. (1981). Courts. A Comparative and Political Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Taha, A. E. (2004). “Publish or Paris? Evidence of How Judges Allocate Their Time.” American Law and Economics Review. 6, 1–27.
Tulkens, H. (1993). “On FDH Efficiency Analysis: Some Methodological Issues and Applications to Retail Banking, Courts, and Urban Transit.” Journal of Productivity Analysis. 4, 183–210.
Tullock, G. (1980). Trials on Trial: The Pure Theory of Legal Procedures, New York: Columbia University Press.
Weiss, M., Simitis, S. & Rydzy, W. (1989). The Settlement of Labour Disputes in the Federal Republic of Germany. In Tadashi Hanami and Roger Blanpain (eds.), Industrial Conflict Resolution in Market Economies. A Study of Australia, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA. 2nd ed. Deventer, Boston: Kluwer, pp. 81–106.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
JEL Classification: J45, K31, M12
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schneider, M.R. Judicial Career Incentives and Court Performance: An Empirical Study of the German Labour Courts of Appeal. Eur J Law Econ 20, 127–144 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-005-1733-2
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-005-1733-2