What's law got to do with it? what judges do, why they do it, and what's at stake

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : so what does law have to do with it? / Charles G. Geyh -- What's law got to do with it : thoughts from "the realm of political science" / Jeffrey A. Segal -- On the study of judicial behaviors : of law, politics, science and humility / Stephen B. Burbank -- Law and policy : more and less than a dichotomy / Lawrence Baum -- Law is politics / Frank B. Cross -- Path dependence in studies of legal decision making / Eileen Braman and J. Mitchell Pickerill -- Looking for law in all the wrong places : some suggestions for modeling legal decisionmaking / Barry Friedman and Andrew D. Martin -- Stare decisis as reciprocity norm / Stefanie A. Lindquist -- How judicial elections are like other elections and what that means for the rule of law / Matthew J. Streb -- On the cataclysm of judicial elections and other popular anti-democratic myths / Melinda Gann Hall -- Are judicial elections democracy-enhancing? / David Pozen -- Judging the politics of judging : are politicians in robes inevitably illegitimate? / James L. Gibson -- The rule of law is dead! Long live the rule of law! / Keith J. Bybee -- Views from the bench / Frank Sullivan, Nancy Vaidik, and Sarah Evans Barker.