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Full-Text Articles in Law
Narrative, Truth, And Trial, Lisa Kern Griffin
Narrative, Truth, And Trial, Lisa Kern Griffin
Faculty Scholarship
This Article critically evaluates the relationship between constructing narratives and achieving factual accuracy at trials. The story model of adjudication— according to which jurors process testimony by organizing it into competing narratives—has gained wide acceptance in the descriptive work of social scientists and currency in the courtroom, but it has received little close attention from legal theorists. The Article begins with a discussion of the meaning of narrative and its function at trial. It argues that the story model is incomplete, and that “legal truth” emerges from a hybrid of narrative and other means of inquiry. As a result, trials …
Special Incentives To Sue, Margaret H. Lemos
Special Incentives To Sue, Margaret H. Lemos
Faculty Scholarship
In an effort to strengthen private enforcement of federal law, Congress regularly employs plaintiff-side attorneys’ fee shifts, damage enhancements, and other mechanisms that promote litigation. Standard economic theory predicts that these devices will increase the volume of suit by private actors, which in turn will bolster enforcement and encourage more voluntary compliance with the law. This Article challenges the conventional wisdom. I use empirical evidence to demonstrate that special incentives to sue do not dependably generate more litigation. More crucially, when such incentives do work, they often trigger a judicial backlash against the very rights that Congress sought to promote. …
The Solicitor General As Mediator Between Court And Agency, Margaret H. Lemos
The Solicitor General As Mediator Between Court And Agency, Margaret H. Lemos
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.