1. This article provides an automated procedure for measuring discretion and delegation in legal texts to facilitate large-scale empirical analysis.
2. The method uses information in syntactic parse trees to identify legally relevant provisions, as well as agents and delegated actions.
3. Two applications are undertaken: a measure of bureaucratic discretion by looking at the level of legislative detail for US states, and measures of delegation to governors in state legislation.
The article is generally reliable and trustworthy, providing a detailed overview of the methods used to measure discretion and delegation in legislative texts. The authors provide evidence from two applications that support their claims, demonstrating the effectiveness of their approach. Furthermore, they cite previous literature to back up their arguments, which adds credibility to their work.
However, there are some potential biases that should be noted. For example, the authors focus solely on US states when discussing their applications, which may limit the generalizability of their findings to other contexts or countries. Additionally, the authors do not explore any counterarguments or alternative explanations for their findings; this could have been useful in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the topic at hand.