Networks and the Law

MeshForum is about the importance of Networks across disciplines. At MeshForum 2005 we will hear from speakers as diverse as economists, phyiscists, entrepreneurs, military experts, consultants, and activists.

In a paper still in draft format, Thomas A Smith of the University of San Diego School of Law analyzes the case history of the US courts from a network perspective. His research was conducted in partnership with Lexis/Nexis who wrote custom software for him to calculate the citation linkages across US case history as well as the subset of just US Supreme Court cases.

While his paper is still in a draft form and thus unfinished in many places, his initial research findings support many conclusions about the network structure of US case law, showing that the structure of which cases get cited is complex but appears to be partially at least a good example of specific types of networks.

Even more relevant to MeshForum is that one of his primary points is that the body of US case law, as well as perhaps other relevant documents such as laws and legal journal articles, represents one of the largest, oldest, and most heavily documented examples of network data, and it also happens to be easily studied and analyzed. For one, case law unlike many other datasets is public records. For another, for centuries, long before electronic records, cases were uniquely identified and linked to each other via specificly formatted citations.

By studying this record it is possible to learn a great deal about how the network embodied within the legal profession builds upon the past, perhaps discovering specifically the importance of age vs. specifics of the case in determining future citations (i.e. a portion of citations may be a result of age not fitness, but a portion may be related to other factors than purely age). And further that this may change over time, i.e. there appears to be a pattern whereby over a certain age cases become less frequently cited.

I personally wonder if it would be possible to detect the impact of new technology on the citation records - i.e. the rise of Lexis/Nexis and other electronic search likely changed how past cases were researched and found - perhaps allowing new cases to be discovered and cited more quickly (i.e. without having to wait for a printed book to be published) and probably allowing some "fit" cases to be discovered independent of their level of citation - i.e. changing perhaps the network structure by allowing more links independent of age/link number effects to be formed.

In any case, it points out again why people from many industries are and should be interested in Networks. And shows to the value for network researchers of engaging with collogues from many fields.