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Full-Text Articles in Law
Future Conduct And The Limits Of Class-Action Settlements, James Grimmelmann
Future Conduct And The Limits Of Class-Action Settlements, James Grimmelmann
James Grimmelmann
This Article identifies a new and previously unrecognized trend in class-action settlements: releases for the defendant’s future conduct. Such releases, which hold the defendant harmless for wrongs it will commit in the future, are unusually dangerous to class members and to the public. Even more than the “future claims” familiar to class-action scholars, future-conduct releases pose severe informational problems for class members and for courts. Worse, they create moral hazard for the defendant, give it concentrated power, and thrust courts into a prospective planning role they are ill-equipped to handle.
Courts should guard against the dangers of future-conduct releases with …
Superiority As Unity, Jay Tidmarsh
Superiority As Unity, Jay Tidmarsh
Jay Tidmarsh
One of Professor Redish’s many important contributions to legal scholarship is his recent work on class actions. Grounding his argument in the theory of democratic accountability that has been at the centerpiece of all his work, Professor Redish suggests that, in nearly all instances, class actions violate the individual autonomy of litigants and should not be used by courts. This Essay begins from the opposite premise: that class actions should be grounded in the notion of social utility rather than autonomy so that class actions should be used whenever they achieve net social gains. This idea of “superiority” presents some …
Adequately Representing Groups, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Adequately Representing Groups, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Courts Should Apply A Relatively More Stringent Pleading Threshold To Class Actions, Matthew Lawrence
Courts Should Apply A Relatively More Stringent Pleading Threshold To Class Actions, Matthew Lawrence
Matthew B. Lawrence