GVPT Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Patrick Wohlfarth recently headlined the Sadat Book Chat series with a discussion of his new book: Cognitive Aging and the Federal Circuit Courts: How Senescence Influences the Law and Judges, co-authored with Ryan C. Black and Ryan J. Owens.
In the book, Wohlfarth and his coauthors investigates how cognitive aging influences federal circuit court judges. The first-of-their-kind results show that as judges age, they require more time to craft their opinions; they rely more on cognitive shortcuts; their opinions become less complex; they increasingly rely on others to help them write opinions; and their legal influence on panels wanes just as their susceptibility to persuasion increases. These results are sure to transform broad debates about institutional reform.
The Sadat Book Chat is a book conversation series hosted by the Sadat Chair in order to showcase publications by the department's faculty, and others, and to generate a broader conversation.
