Formality, Procedure, and Judicial Behavior

This JSD dissertation includes three essays that study formality, procedure and judicial behavior. Previous studies on judicial behavior show that judges are vulnerable to many undue influences (e.g., emotions, behavioral biases, and other manipulations). Studies have not addressed, however, the fact that judges are decision makers who are embedded in formalities and procedures that are devised to help them to improve decision quality. This dissertation suggests a set of debiasing formalities and procedures, and test their effectiveness against empirical and experimental evidences.