Sensemaking in the Legal System A Comparative Case Study of Changes to Monetary Sanction Laws

Legal scholars have long studied why laws are implemented differently across local court contexts. Key to understanding this localized variation is understanding how new laws are communicated, interpreted, and negotiated within the legal field. Few studies, however, have directly examined the proces...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRSF : Russell Sage Foundation journal of the social sciences Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 63 - 81
Main Authors SMITH, TYLER, THOMPSON, KRISTINA J., CADIGAN, MICHELE
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Russell Sage Foundation 01.01.2022
Subjects
Behavior
Case studies
Change agents
Collaboration
Comparative analysis
Conformity
courtroom communities
Courts
Cultural factors
Influence
Jurisdiction
Law
legal change
Legal system
monetary sanctions
PART I: Laws and Policies Governing Monetary Sanctions
Policy making
Regulatory agencies
Sanctions
Sensemaking
Understanding
United States > US
Missouri
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Summary:Legal scholars have long studied why laws are implemented differently across local court contexts. Key to understanding this localized variation is understanding how new laws are communicated, interpreted, and negotiated within the legal field. Few studies, however, have directly examined the process by which court actors interpret and negotiate new laws within the court. We explore these sensemaking processes through interviews and observations of court actors in Washington and Missouri after changes to monetary sanction laws. We identify three primary forms of sensemaking and analyze contextual factors that shape these processes. We find key differences in sensemaking based on differing levels of regulatory oversight but also that normative and cultural factors were still important in determining legal interpretation and implementation within each state. These findings have important implications for our theoretical understanding of courtroom communities and for policymakers seeking to enact reform.
ISSN:2377-8253
2377-8261
DOI:10.7758/RSF.2022.8.1.03