Appeal rate and caseload: evidence from civil litigation in Korea

Courts of modern democratic societies have generally implemented appeal procedures to correct potential errors in ruling. However, considering the time and effort that both litigants spend, availability of an appeal cannot be better than reaching the correct judgment in the original case. This difficulty raises the policy issue of how to reduce the rate of appeals and improve welfare of litigants. In this paper, we assert that lower caseloads allow judges to expend more time and effort on each case, contributing to lower appeal rates. Analysis of court-level data from Korea corroborates our inference.     

Notes on contributors

The process whereby queen Athaliah was deposed and replaced as monarch of Judah by the boy‐king Joash in the seventh century bce warrants analysis as a typical ‘coup d'etat’. The purpose of the present article is to interpret the relevant biblical narratives (II Kings II and 11 Chron. 23) in terms relevant to that political concept. Specifically, it posits that the organization and implementation of this highly successful coup can be illuminated by reference to modern political science literature on regime change. Thus read, the biblical records of the episode constitute a detailed ‘how to’ manual of political action.