The Uses of Discretion

Discretion is a pervasive phenomenon in legal systems. It is of concern to lawyers because it can be a force for advancing the broad purposes of law and subverting them. For social scientists this phenomenon is an important form of decision-making behavior one in which legal rules are merely one force in a field of pressures and constraints that drive certain courses of action or inaction. This book presents a variety of analyses of legal discretion by lawyers and social scientists who have made discretion and its uses a central part of their scholarly concerns.