Law Commons^™

Inside The Black Box: Comment On Diamond And Vidmar, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

It is an honor to be invited to comment on the first publication of the Arizona Jury Project, a study of Arizona juries that includes videotaping and analysis of jury room discussions and deliberations. It is a remarkable and unique project, made possible by an unusual confluence of people, places, and events. In an insightful opinion some years ago, United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed that "[i]t is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments …

Discovery In Summary Assessment Proceedings, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

When the collection of tax could be imperiled by going through the usual deficiency procedures, the IRS may make a jeopardy assessment or a termination assessment (hereinafter sometimes called “summary assessment”) and proceed immediately to collection. To prevent the misuse of this power, section 7429 provides affected taxpayers expedited administrative and judicial review. The IRS has made tens of thousands of jeopardy and termination assessments over the years, and there are hundreds of court decisions in litigated section 7429 cases.

The unique nature of jeopardy and termination assessments makes section 7429 proceedings very different from typical tax litigation. This article …

3rd Annual Open Government Summit: Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, 2001, Department Of The Attorney General, State Of Rhode Island

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Reconceptualizing The Expert Witness: Social Costs, Current Controls And Proposed Responses, Jeffrey L. Harrison

UF Law Faculty Publications

Unlike virtually any other business, expert witnesses are not typically held accountable in either tort or contract law for their commercial activities. This means that many are inclined to deliver what the market demands - partisan, biased, or plainly dishonest testimony - without concern for the costs this testimony may impose on others. This immunity from the internalization of the social cost of their testimony is hard to reconcile with any moral or economic standard. Harsh judicial reactions to some experts and a slight increase in expert witness liability may signal that a change in the privileged status of experts …

Memorandum Of Argument For Leave To Appeal Of The Appellant James R. Demers, Court Of Appeal For Province Of British Columbia, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

After Steel Co.: 'Hypothetical Jurisdiction' In The Federal Appellate Courts, Joan E. Steinman

All Faculty Scholarship

In Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, the United States Supreme Court, sua sponte, denounced the doctrine of "hypothetical jurisdiction," a doctrine that, in some circumstances, allowed courts to assume, arguendo, the existence of jurisdiction and to address the merit questions presented by cases. Several of the Justices distanced themselves from the denunciation, however, and despite the vociferousness of the position taken by the majority, even it found that there were exceptional circumstances in which the Court had acted properly (and presumably in which other courts would act appropriately) in assuming jurisdiction arguendo and addressing merits questions. The …

Appeal From Jury Or Judge Trial: Defendants' Advantage, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The prevailing "expert" opinion is that jury verdicts are largely immune to appellate revision. Using a database that combines all federal civil trials and appeals decided since 1988, we find that jury trials, as a group, are in fact not so special on appeal. But the data do show that defendants succeed more than plaintiffs on appeal from civil trials, and especially from jury trials. Defendants appealing their losses after trial by jury obtain reversals at a 31% rate, while losing plaintiffs succeed in only 13% of their appeals from jury trials. Both descriptive analyses of the results and more …

Forcing The Issue: Activist Veterinarian Seeks Rights For Arrestees As Well As Animals, Kathryn R. Urbonya

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Potential Innovations In Civil Discovery: Lessons For California From The State And Federal Courts, Gregory S. Weber

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Managing Punitive Damages: A Role For Mandatory "Limited Generosity" Classes And Anti-Suit Injunctions?, Joan E. Steinman

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I consider whether "limited generosity" classes may be used to determine a defendant's entire liability for punitive damages arising from a defined course of conduct. The goals of such a class action would include adequately punishing and deterring the defendant, keeping the defendant's liability within state-mandated and constitutional limits, and facilitating equitable distribution of the damages among injured plaintiffs. The Article describes the legal limits on punitive damages liability that states have established and that the Supreme Court has held substantive due process to impose, and then carefully examines whether such limits constitute a predicate for mandatory …

Is A Foreign State A "Person"? Does It Matter?: Personal Jurisdiction, Due Process, And The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 34 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 115 (2001), Karen H. Cross

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The 2000 Federal Civil Rules Revisions, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

During April 2000, the United States Supreme Court prescribed a comparatively thorough set of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These amendments took effect in December 2000. That development represented the culmination of a rule revision proceeding commenced in 1996 by the Judicial Conference of the United States Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (Advisory Committee). Because certain provisos that the Supreme Court included in the 2000 amendments are rather controversial and could alter significant features of modern federal civil litigation primarily involving discovery, these revisions deserve assessment. This Essay undertakes that effort by emphasizing changes in mandatory prediscovery, …

Simplification- A Civil Procedure Perspective, Doug Rendleman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Jurisdiction, Jurisprudence And Legal Change: Sociological Jurisprudence And The Road To International Shoe, Logan E. Sawyer Iii

Scholarly Works

While scholars espousing ideological explanations have noted the correlation between the intellectual trends of the New Deal and International Shoe, they have not demonstrated the strength of this connection. Some merely assert that ideology caused International Shoe,12 while others point to only very general similarities between International Shoe and the ideology of the age.' 3 This Article attempts to strengthen the ideological explanation by examining closely the intellectual context of International Shoe. That examination reveals that the decision did not result simply from the expansion of interstate business or the inherent weakness of the Pennoyer system. Instead, International Shoe was …

Rules Of Transnational Civil Procedure, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Michele Taruffo, Rolf Sturner, Anthony Gidi

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Health Care Ethics Experts In Canadian Courts, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this paper, I will first describe the traditional approach to the use of experts in Canadian courts. Then I will consider whether, on this approach, health care ethics experts should be permitted to testify in Canadian courts. I will argue that they should be permitted to testify but caution should be exercised by the courts, the parties, and the experts themselves. The objective of the paper is to highlight the strengths and raise some concerns about the weaknesses of a practice that appears to be growing, so that the potential harmful consequences might be anticipated, problems with the practice …

A Modest Reform For Federal Procedural Rulemaking, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Following the adoption of the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relating to discovery in 2000, Prof. Tobias notes the lack of empirical research or other indication of how the new rules might work in practice preceding their enactment. He suggests that Congress should reconsider a reject 1983 amendment to F.R.C.P. 83 which would authorize courts to obtain Judicial Conference approval to test promising mechanisms for five years before adoption.

The Agenda-Setter For Complex Litigation, Richard L. Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reassessing The Magnetic Pull Of Megacases On Procedure, Richard L. Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Future: Coping With Discovery Of Electronic Material, Richard L. Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Class Action Advice In The Form Of Questions, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

The opportunity to offer advice to those who are considering the adoption or modification of class or group action procedures for other legal systems is both welcome and distracting. It is welcome because it forces a change of perspective in the attempt to contemplate adaptation of United States practice to different cultures, political structures, substantive laws, and courts with dissimilar surrounding procedures. It is distracting because there are so many different levels of possible comparison that the choice of perspective must be tailored to the immediate occasion. It is tempting to take on the most important sets of questions-for example, …

Ending Illegitimate Advocacy: Reinvigorating Rule 11 Through Enhancement Of The Ethical Duty To Report, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.

Scholarly Works

This article seeks to draw attention to certain ethical misconduct of litigators that is routinely accepted, tolerated, or ignored by the legal profession. Though there are other examples, the author focuses on conduct prohibited by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. In particular, the author concentrates on that rule's so-called “safe harbor” provision, which he argues serves to insulate, and possibly encourage, illegitimate advocacy in the form of the assertion and maintenance of frivolous claims, defenses, or other contentions ironically, the very conduct that the rule was ostensibly intended to deter. Regardless of the frequency of this sort of misbehavior, …

Second Circuit 2000-2001 Personal Jurisdiction Developments, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Survey Article will review some of the district and circuit courts' significant decisions, and comment on future trends for application of the law of personal jurisdiction in the Second Circuit. The Article concludes with a recommendation that district court judges should not grant or deny personal jurisdiction defenses until at least limited jurisdictional discovery has been granted and is completed.

Procedural Uniformity And The Exagerated Role Of Rules, Thomas O. Main

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

They Toil Not, Neither Do They Spin: Civil Liability Under The Oregon Securities Law, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

Under Oregon law, persons who sell securities in violation of statutory registration requirements, or by means of some misrepresentation or omission of material fact, may be liable to any person or entity who buys securities from or through them. Likewise, persons who buy securities by means of some misrepresentation or omission of material fact may be liable to any person or entity who sells securities to or through them. In addition to, or in lieu of, suing the person who committed the material misrepresentation or omission, a plaintiff may sue one or more persons or entities who might be vicariously …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 2000 and 2001.

Politics And Sociology In Federal Civil Rulemaking: Errors Of Scope, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

In April 2000 the United States Supreme Court promulgated a package of Proposed Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that took effect on December 1, 2000, without Congressional intervention. As one commentator observed, “(a)ll of (the proposed amendments) promise to have a significant effect on discovery practice.” One Proposed Amendment--narrowing the scope of discovery available pursuant to Rule 26(b)(1)--was particularly controversial before both the Advisory Committee, the Standing Committee, and the Judicial Conference. Nonetheless, the Proposed Amended Rule narrowing scope proceeded from the Court to finality with no intervention by Congress. Proponents of the change minimized criticism by …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 2000 and 2001.

Introduction To The Principles And Rules Of Transnational Civil Procedure, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., Michele Taruffo, Rolf Sturner, Anthony Gidi

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Evidence: 1999-2000 Survey Of New York Law, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.