- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226081267
- eISBN:
- 9780226081281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226081281.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter reviews the empirical evidence of the decline of the trial in the United States. It cites statistics showing a rapid decline in the numbers of criminal and civil trials over the last ...
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This chapter reviews the empirical evidence of the decline of the trial in the United States. It cites statistics showing a rapid decline in the numbers of criminal and civil trials over the last thirty years and the catastrophic crash over the last ten years. The chapter evaluates the tentative speculations about what is fueling the decline and suggests that this decline has a self-perpetuating quality, as key actors lose the skills and dispositions necessary to try cases.Less
This chapter reviews the empirical evidence of the decline of the trial in the United States. It cites statistics showing a rapid decline in the numbers of criminal and civil trials over the last thirty years and the catastrophic crash over the last ten years. The chapter evaluates the tentative speculations about what is fueling the decline and suggests that this decline has a self-perpetuating quality, as key actors lose the skills and dispositions necessary to try cases.
