| Abstract: | Many studies have analyzed the diffusion of legislative policies,but relatively little work has been done on the spread of judicialinnovations. An analysis of the spread of eight tort doctrinesamong the American states indicates that there were clear regionalleaders, including some states that were not early adoptersof the innovations but still served as leaders for their neighbors.There was little relationship between being a regional leaderfor legislative adoptions and being a regional leader in judicialadoptions, indicating that different processes influenced diffusionin these two arenas of state political activity. |
