Law Commons^™

The Need For A National Civil Justice Survey Of Incidence And Claiming Behavior, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Civil justice issues play a prominent role in society. Family law issues such as divorce and child custody, consumer victimization issues raised by questionable trade practices, and tort issues raised by surprisingly high estimated rates of medical malpractice, questionable prescription drug practices, and other behaviors are part of the fabric of daily life. Policymakers and interest groups regularly debate and assess whether civil problems are best resolved by legislative action, agency action, litigation, alternative dispute resolution, other methods, or some combination of actions. Yet we lack systematic quantitative knowledge about the primary events in daily life that generate civil justice …

The Effects Of Intent: Do We Know How Legal Standards Work?, Theodore Eisenberg, Sheri Lynn Johnson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No one knows how the intent standard works in racial discrimination cases, though many have speculated. To test the speculation, this study examines how the intent standard actually operates. Its findings cast doubt on whether we really know how any legal standard functions.

Litigation Models And Trial Outcomes In Civil Rights And Prisoner Cases, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In ideal circumstances, court cases are won or lost on their merits. But litigation does not proceed free from external social factors or from the characteristics of the participants. Factors other than the merits of cases, therefore, may help explain litigation outcomes and selection of disputes for trial. Possible factors include judge or jury bias, regional influence, the type of case, the quality of counsel, and the nature and resources of plaintiffs and defendants.

This Article uses both impressionistic conjecture about litigation and formal litigation theory to develop and test hypotheses about factors affecting outcomes in civil rights and prisoner …

What Shapes Perceptions Of The Federal Court System?, Theodore Eisenberg, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Two hundred years is a long time. It is too long after formation of a court system to ask such basic questions as (1) what cases occupy the system, and (2) whether even informed professionals have a reasonable picture of what goes on within the system. Nonetheless, continuing debate about the volume and makeup of litigation in general and of federal court litigation in particular requires legal scholars to address these questions. Professor Marc Galanter's work on the litigation explosion questions central assumptions about the nature and growth of the federal docket. Our prior work undermines widely held views about …

The Importance Of Section 1981, Theodore Eisenberg, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Section 1983: Doctrinal Foundations And An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications