Lucky in Your Judge

Abstract

This Article considers the role of luck in judicial outcomes, stemming from differences in the moral and legal views and reasoning of the judges who decide them. It suggests that luck is ineliminable from a system of positive law and that although it poses important moral problems of unpredictability, arbitrariness, and unfairness, it is not easily remediable. It is certainly not remediable by replacing a system of positive law with a system of adjudication addressing moral issues directly. Nor is it remediable by insisting on integrity as a feature of judicial decision-making.