Intercircuit splits occur when two or more circuits on the U.S. Courts of Appeals issue different legal rules about the same legal question. When this happens, federal law is applied differently in different parts of the country. Intercircuit splits cause legal nonuniformity, are an impediment to lawyering and judging, and have practical consequences for U.S. law. Despite intercircuit splits’ importance, there is almost no quantitative research about them. We created a unique original dataset that includes intercircuit splits that arose between 2005 and 2013. For each intercircuit split, we identified every circuit and every case involved. These data reveal that one‐third of intercircuit splits are resolved by the Supreme Court. Two‐thirds are not. We show that those that will be resolved are resolved within three years after they arise and that splits are more likely to be resolved when they exhibit contemporaneous and growing disagreement. However, many such splits are never resolved by the Supreme Court. Those that are not resolved by the Supreme Court continue to yield litigation and do not dissipate on their own. The likelihood of resolution does not rise as time passes.

中文翻译：

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美国法院的法律统一

当美国上诉法院的两个或多个巡回法院针对同一法律问题发布不同的法律规则时，就会发生电路间分裂。在这种情况下，联邦法律在美国不同地区的适用方式有所不同。电路间的分裂会导致法律上的不统一，成为律师和法官的障碍，并对美国法律产生实际影响。尽管电路间分裂的重要性，但几乎没有关于它们的定量研究。我们创建了一个独特的原始数据集，其中包括2005年至2013年之间发生的电路间分裂。对于每个电路间分裂，我们都确定了涉及的每个电路和每种情况。这些数据表明，最高法院解决了电路间分裂的三分之一。三分之二不是。我们表明，将要解决的问题在出现后的三年内得到解决，并且当分歧表现出越来越大的分歧时，分歧更有可能得到解决。但是，最高法院从未解决过许多这样的分歧。那些没有被最高法院解决的案件将继续提起诉讼，并且不会自行消散。随着时间的流逝，解决问题的可能性不会增加。