Assessing randomness in case assignment: the case study of the Brazilian Supreme Court

Autor(es)

Marcondes, Diego ^[1] ; Peixoto, Claudia ^[2] ; Stern, Julio Michael ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Math & Stat, Dept Appl Math, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Stat, Inst Math & Stat, Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: LAW PROBABILITY & RISK; v. 18, n. 2-3, p. 97-114, JUN-SEP 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Sortition, i.e. random appointment for public duty, has been employed by societies throughout the years as a firewall designated to prevent illegitimate interference between parties in a legal case and agents of the legal system. In judicial systems of modern western countries, random procedures are mainly employed to select the jury, the court and/or the judge in charge of judging a legal case. Therefore, these random procedures play an important role in the course of a case, and should comply with some principles, such as transparency and complete auditability. Nevertheless, these principles are neglected by random procedures in some judicial systems, which are performed in secrecy and are not auditable by the involved parties. The assignment of cases in the Brazilian Supreme Court is an example of such a procedure, for it is performed using procedures unknown to the parties involved in the judicial cases. This article presents a review of how sortition has been historically employed by societies and discusses how Mathematical Statistics may be applied to random procedures of the judicial system, as it has been applied for almost a century on clinical trials, for example. A statistical model for assessing randomness in case assignment is proposed and applied to the Brazilian Supreme Court. As final remarks, guidelines for the development of good randomization procedures are outlined. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 14/50279-4 - Brasil Research Centre for Gas Innovation
• Beneficiário: Julio Romano Meneghini
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa Centros de Pesquisa em Engenharia
• Processo FAPESP: 13/07375-0 - CeMEAI - Centro de Ciências Matemáticas Aplicadas à Indústria
• Beneficiário: Francisco Louzada Neto
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Centros de Pesquisa, Inovação e Difusão - CEPIDs