A Complex Systems Study of Social Hierarchies and Jurisprudence

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dc.contributor.advisorDavidsen, Jörn
dc.contributor.advisorCampbell, Lyndsay M.
dc.contributor.authorHickey, Joseph
dc.contributor.committeememberRedner, Sidney
dc.contributor.committeememberFeder, David L.
dc.contributor.committeememberHobill, David W.
dc.contributor.committeememberYau, Andrew W.
dc.date2020-02
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-02T18:34:16Z
dc.date.available2019-12-02T18:34:16Z
dc.date.issued2019-11
dc.description.abstractHumanity's understanding of complex societal phenomena is still in its infancy, and there is much to discover about the organizing principles governing social life on Earth. How do societal structures such as social hierarchies form, and under what conditions do these structures remain stable versus become unstable and collapse? What is the structure of the jurisprudence that regulates modern human societies and how does it evolve in time? In this thesis, I apply quantitative analysis and modeling approaches from physics and network science to investigate these questions. In Part I, I develop simple models of the formation and stability of social hierarchies and compare their results to interaction data from animal societies and proxy data from human societies. The models are based on pairwise interactions between randomly-selected individuals that result in exchanges of societal "status." Following many interactions, a distribution of status forms, the shape of which ranges from egalitarian (many individuals with near average status) to very unequal (many low status individuals and a few high status individuals), depending on the model parameters. An Arrhenius relationship between a characteristic time controlling the evolution of the status distribution and the model parameters quantifies "long-lived" status distributions which appear to be stable in time, but in fact are not. In Part II, I analyze citation networks of court decisions (judgments) in the areas of family, bankruptcy, and defamation law, using unique datasets covering all levels of the Canadian court hierarchy (trial, appellate, and Supreme Court of Canada). In each network, judgments are "nodes" and judges' citations of past decisions are directed "links" between nodes. Despite the legal differences between the three areas of law, many large-scale network properties are similar. However, one can use refined network tools (clustering methods) to draw out differences in the datasets and interpret them in relation to legal developments (landmark judgments and important legislation) in the specific areas of law. This leads to an in-depth examination of the influence of landmark judgments and statutory changes on the explosion in family litigation that occurred in Canada in the 1990s.en_US
dc.identifier.citationHickey, J. (2019). A Complex Systems Study of Social Hierarchies and Jurisprudence (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37287
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/111276
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyScienceen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectComplex systemsen_US
dc.subjectSociophysicsen_US
dc.subjectCitation networksen_US
dc.subjectSocial hierarchiesen_US
dc.subjectJudicial decisionsen_US
dc.subjectCanadian lawen_US
dc.subjectSocietal stabilityen_US
dc.subjectInequalityen_US
dc.subjectAuthoritarianismen_US
dc.subjectSelf-organizationen_US
dc.subjectEmergenceen_US
dc.subjectDefamation lawen_US
dc.subjectBankruptcy lawen_US
dc.subjectFamily lawen_US
dc.subjectDominance hierarchyen_US
dc.subjectDestabilizationen_US
dc.subjectIncome distributionen_US
dc.subjectTotalitarianismen_US
dc.subjectSocial dynamicsen_US
dc.subjectClass structuresen_US
dc.subjectSocial stratificationen_US
dc.subjectWinner-loser modelsen_US
dc.subjectSocial classen_US
dc.subjectAnimal behaviouren_US
dc.subjectLandmark judgmentsen_US
dc.subjectStatutory changesen_US
dc.subjectSupreme Court of Canadaen_US
dc.subjectLitigationen_US
dc.subjectCitation network clusteringen_US
dc.subjectCourt statisticsen_US
dc.subjectEmpirical legal studiesen_US
dc.subjectFederal Child Support Guidelinesen_US
dc.subjectSpousal supporten_US
dc.subjectMatrimonial propertyen_US
dc.subjectCustody and accessen_US
dc.subjectCompanies' Creditors Arrangement Acten_US
dc.subjectBankruptcy and Insolvency Acten_US
dc.subjectFreedom of expressionen_US
dc.subject.classificationLawen_US
dc.subject.classificationSociologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationBiologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationPhysicsen_US
dc.titleA Complex Systems Study of Social Hierarchies and Jurisprudenceen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplinePhysics & Astronomyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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