Replication Data for: A High Court Plays the Accordion: Validating Ex Ante Case Complexity on Oral Arguments

The data set (saved in Stata *.dta and .txt) contains all observations (Norwegian supreme court cases 2008-2018 decided in five-justice panels) and variables (independent variables measuring complexity of cases and the dependent variable measuring time in hours scheduled for oral arguments) relevant for a complete replication of the the study.
ABSTRACT OF STUDY: While high courts with fixed time for oral arguments deprive researchers of the opportunity to extract temporal variance, courts that apply the “accordion model” institutional design and adjust the time for oral arguments according to the perceived complexity of a case are a boon for research that seeks to validate case complexity well ahead of the courts’ opinion writing. We analyse an original data set of all 1,402 merits decisions of the Norwegian Supreme Court from 2008 to 2018 where the justices set time for oral arguments to accommodate the anticipated difficulty of the case. Our validation model empirically tests whether and how attributes of a case associated with ex ante complexity are linked with time allocated for oral arguments. Cases that deal with international law and civil law, have several legal players, are cross-appeals from lower courts are indicative of greater case complexity. We argue that these results speak powerfully to the use of case attributes and/or the time reserved for oral arguments as ex ante measures of case complexity. To enhance the external validity of our findings, future studies should examine whether these results are confirmed in high courts with similar institutional design for oral arguments. Subsequent analyses should also test the degree to which complex cases and/or time for oral arguments have predictive validity on more divergent opinions among the justices and on the time courts and justices need to render a final opinion.

该数据集（以 Stata 的 *.dta 和 .txt 格式保存）包含了所有观测值（2008-2018年挪威最高法院以五法官小组形式裁决的案件）以及变量（衡量案件复杂性的自变量和衡量口头辩论时间安排的小时数的因变量），这些变量对于完整复制该研究至关重要。研究摘要：在口头辩论时间固定的最高法院剥夺了研究人员提取时间变异性的机会时，采用“手风琴模型”的机构设计和根据案件感知的复杂程度调整口头辩论时间的法院，对于寻求在法院撰写意见之前有效验证案件复杂性的研究来说，是一种福音。我们分析了2008年至2018年挪威最高法院所有1,402项实质判决的原始数据集，其中法官根据案件预期的难度设定口头辩论时间。我们的验证模型从实证角度测试了案件与事前复杂程度相关的属性是否以及如何与口头辩论分配的时间相联系。涉及国际法、民法、有多个法律参与者以及来自下级法院的交叉上诉的案件表明案件复杂性更高。我们认为，这些结果有力地证明了将案件属性和/或口头辩论预留时间作为事前衡量案件复杂性的指标。为了增强我们研究结果的对外部有效性的验证，未来的研究应检验这些结果是否在具有类似口头辩论机构设计的最高法院中得到证实。后续分析还应测试复杂案件和/或口头辩论时间对法官之间更分歧意见以及法院和法官作出最终意见所需时间的预测效度。