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42 Just. Sys. J. 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/jusj42 and id is 1 raw text is: JUSTICE SYSTEM JOURNAL
2021, VOL. 42, NO. 1, 1-2                                                     Routledge
https://doi.org/10.1080/0098261 X.2021.1926785                                Taylor & Francis Group
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letter from the Editor - Volume 42, Issue 1
Welcome to the first issue of Volume 42 for the Justice System Journal. JSJ is published under an
arrangement between the National Center for State Courts and Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
The Journal's commitment is to providing an outlet for innovative, social scientific research on
the myriad of issues that pertain to the third branch of government. Information about JSJ,
including the Journal's Aims & Scopes as well as instructions for manuscript submissions, can be
found at our website: http://www.tandfonline.com/ujsj. Manuscript submissions are processed
solely online through the ScholarOne system, and the direct link to submit a manuscript is http://
mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ujsj.
Leading off our first issue of 2021, Taylor Kidd (University of California, Irvine) explores
Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys. Kidd investigates
how potential jurors view both prosecutors and defense attorneys, two integral players in the
criminal justice system, and then how those views may influence trial decisions. Importantly,
Kidd distinguishes between explicit and implicit biases and finds both matter. Most notably, Kidd
finds that implicit biases are most consequential in cases where the evidence is most ambiguous
and so underlying attitudes have more opportunity to emerge.
The other three research articles in this issue leave the bounds of the U.S. to examine courts
in other countries. We begin our overseas exploration with Benjamin Bricker's (Southern Illinois
University) piece on Consensus Decision Making: A Comparative Analysis of Judging and
Judicial Deliberations. Bricker conducts a comparative study of European courts to understand
how judges reach consensus in different forums. Through both interviews with judges and clerks,
as well as an analysis of an original dataset of European constitutional court decisions, Bricker
finds that case complexity significantly influences the likelihood of consensus outcomes.
We next move to an examination of Brazilian courts in Adjudication Forums, Specialization,
and Case Duration: Evidence from Brazilian Federal Courts, by Caio Castelliano (University of
Brasilia), Peter Grajzl (Washington and Lee University), Andre Alves (Office of the Attorney
General, Brazil), and Eduardo Watanabe (University of Brasilia). Using Brazil as a case study, the
authors investigate how court institutional structures and processes - including forms of court
specialization - can influence case durations. They find that certain forms of specialization, but
not others, can lead to faster case adjudications, providing important insights for courts across
the globe.
In our final research article, Elisa Fusco (University of Rome La Sapienza), Martina Laurenzi
(Logista Italia), and Bernardo Maggi (University of Roma La Sapienza) explore Length of Trials
in the Italian Judicial System: An Efficiency Analysis by Macro-Area. The Italian legal system is
marked by both more judges than most European countries, but also longer case durations. The
authors investigate both why this reality exists, and also how greater efficiency - and thus faster
time to justice - may be achieved. Once again, their findings also provide potential lessons for
judicial systems located well beyond Italy's borders.
Last, we end with two intriguing Legal Notes. First, Gbemende Johnson (Hamilton College)
reviews the US Supreme Court's recent decision in US Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club.
This decision has important implications both for organizations and individuals that seek infor-
mation from the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as for

CONTACT Amy Steigerwalt ® asteigerwalt@gsu.edu
C 2021 National Center for State Courts

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