Law Commons^™

Nuremberg In America: Litigating The Holocaust In United States Courts, Michael J. Bazyler

University of Richmond Law Review

The phrase "opening the floodgates of litigation" connotes a pejorative meaning in American legal argument. Most often, it is used by courts as a reason not to allow a certain case to proceed for fear that it would overburden both courts and society with a new class of lawsuits.

What Passes For Policy And Proof In First Amendment Litigation?, Rodney A. Smolla

University of Richmond Law Review

In this Allen Chair Symposium issue of the University of Richmond Law Review, three outstanding scholars have written provocative pieces on the First Amendment. Professor John Nowak engages in an exercise of constitutional futurism, "'remembering the future" to propose a number of relatively radical alterations of First Amendment doctrine to achieve what he argues should be the appropriate balance between freedom of speech and fair trials in "cyber world." Professor Paul Carrington, arguing that a communitarian right of citizens to self-government is the principal that ought to animate our politics and law, has launched a broadside indictment against contemporary First …

Trial Participants In The Newsgathering Process, C. Thomas Dienes

University of Richmond Law Review

The 1990s produced a number of sensational criminal and civil trials. The media and public avidly followed the murder trials of O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers, the Oklahoma City bombing trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and the trial of those charged in the World Trade Center bombing. Civil trials involving products liability, medical malpractice, environmental pollution; the civil trial of O.J. Simpson; Paula Jones's sexual harassment action against President Clinton; and the notorious antitrust case against Microsoft similarly captured the public's attention. Also, as might be expected, trial judges and the legal system generally grappled with questions …

Therapeutic Appellate Decision-Making In The Context Of Disabled Litigants, Ian Freckelton

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores ways in which appellate decision-making can be enhanced so as to minimize the counter-therapeutic consequences of the curial process for litigants and witnesses with psychiatric illnesses and intellectual disabilities.

The Nation's Teacher: The Role Of The United States Supreme Court During Times Of Crisis, Robert Jerome Glennon

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will suggest that TJ has occasionally been part of the United States Supreme Court's jurisprudence. The Court sometimes finds itself at the center of deeply-divisive national controversies. On those occasions, the opinion of the Court can, and ought to, play a role in healing the nation's controversy-inflicted wounds. The Court should consciously craft an opinion that speaks to the American people as a whole and that calls on every citizen, regardless of the fervency of his or her beliefs, to accept the resolution of the controversy offered by the Court. During such crises, citizens are unlikely to accept …

"Johnny's In The Basement/Mixing Up His Medicine": Therapeutic Jurisprudence And Clinical Teaching, Keri K. Gould, Michael L. Perlin

Seattle University Law Review

Therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) provides a new and exciting approach to clinical teaching. By incorporating TJ principles in both the classroom and out-of-classroom components of clinic courses, law professors can give students new and important insights into some of the most difficult problems regularly raised in clinical classes and practice settings. This Article will proceed in three sections. The first section briefly provides some background about TJ and how it has been employed to investigate other areas of the law. Then, the Article discusses some of the important new theoretical developments in clinical legal education, mostly from the "critical lawyering" perspective. …

Thoughts On Some Potential Appellate And Trial Court Applications Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Steve Leben

Seattle University Law Review

To date, the application of therapeutic jurisprudence principles has been concentrated mainly on specialized trial courts: drug treatment courts, domestic violence courts, criminal courts, and juvenile and family courts. Its application to trial courts generally, as well as its application to the appellate courts, remains largely unexplored. This Article considers three areas in which trial and appellate courts may want to consider applying therapeutic jurisprudence.

Psychological Consequences Of Adopting A Therapeutic Lawyering Approach: Pitfalls And Protective Strategies, Lynda L. Murdoch

Seattle University Law Review

The integration of preventive law and therapeutic jurisprudence holds promise for enriching the careers of many practicing lawyers. However, the process of becoming more therapeutic in orientation also involves risk. This Article discusses four potential pitfalls: (1) the process of becoming psychologically-minded and its inherent hazards, including overidentification; (2) the difficulty of balancing neutrality and involvement; (3) the need to identify and manage transference and countertransference; and (4) the risk of secondary trauma. Protective strategies, drawn from the psychotherapeutic and burnout literature, are outlined. This Article stresses the need for lawyers to recognize potential hazards and draw on the experience …

Silencing The Appellant's Voice: The Antitherapeutic Per Curiam Affirmance, Amy D. Ronner, Bruce J. Winick

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will analyze the antitherapeutic impact of the per curium affirmance (PCA) in two steps. First, delving into the psychology of procedural justice, this Article will explain how litigants value "voice," or the ability to tell their stories, as well as "validation," or the sense that the decisionmaker has heard their words and taken them seriously. Second, this Article, through the use of narrative, will show how a PCA had a negative psychological impact on an actual appellant in a criminal case. The Article will conclude by proposing an alternative to the antitherapeutic PCA.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence In The Appellate Arena: Judicial Notice And The Potential Of The Legislative Fact Remand, A.J. Stephani

Seattle University Law Review

This Article begins with a modest objective and ends with an ambitious one. First, it asserts that appellate courts are an appropriate forum for considering the therapeutic impact of the law strand of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) scholarship. TJ's character as a "field of social inquiry" is especially suited to the appellate courts' task of formulating new rules of law and choosing among competing policy objectives when resolving opposing normative principles.

Noriega V. Hernández Colón: Political Persecution Under Therapeutic Scrutiny, Roberto P. Aponte Toro

Seattle University Law Review

Therapeutic jurisprudence is a relatively young school of thought. One of its major attractions to the academic community has been its claim that society could use the law, both at the legislative and adjudicatory level, to promote the psychological well-being of those affected by the law. In this commentary, I want to share a little known decision of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico regarding police persecution of political minorities. It is my contention that looking at this decision through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence, one may discover a serious effort by the court to heal very divisive wounds on …

The Secret Of The Court In The Netherlands, Niels F. Van Manen

Seattle University Law Review

The procedural organization of the legal system in the Netherlands is quite different from the North American model. The Dutch legal system forbids the publication of dissenting opinions. There is even a veil of ignorance about unanimity, created by what is "secret of the court": justice is handed out in black and white terms, regardless of the judges' motivations. This might create an image of unity and unanimity, and thus promote the legitimacy of jurisprudence, however, this secret of the court also prevents the effects of therapeutic jurisprudence, since those who have "won," but even more so those who have …

Second Circuit 1999-2000 Res Judicata Developments, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the 1999-2000 survey year the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued at least twenty-five res judicata decisions expanding the doctrines of claim preclusion and issue preclusion. The court liberally applied claim preclusion but infrequently applied the more expansive doctrine of issue preclusion. Also, the Second Circuit released over fifty unpublished decisions that affect the rights of pro se litigants appearing before the court. These decisions demonstrate the court's immense respect for the doctrine of res judicata. Similarly, the decisions illustrate the extent to which the court relies on the doctrine to achieve finality, to …

Front Matter, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Amicus Curiae: Friend Or Foe: The Limits Of Friendship In American Jurisprudence, Michael J. Harris

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

When Does Time Begin: A Clarification Of The Federal Courts' Inconsistent Application Of The Federal Catch-All Statute Of Limitations, Robert D. Laurie

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Totality Of The Suspicious Circumstances: Airport Drug Courier Profile Use In Massachusetts Since Commonwealth V. Torres, Mark W. Dunderdale

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Poor: The Dangers Of Altering The Contingency Fee System, Kristin A. Porcu

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Leniency For Testimony: Hypocrisy Or Judicial Necessity, Jason C. Moreau

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Robert D. Laurie

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Mandatory Retirement Provisions For Police Officers, Eric Andrew Fox

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Coattail Class Actions: Reflections On Microsoft, Tobacco, And The Mixing Of Public And Private Lawyering In Mass Litigation , Howard M. Erichson

Faculty Scholarship

Ask anyone who follows legal news to name the two biggest litigation news stories in the United States at the start of the twenty-first century, and they will answer without blinking: Microsoft and tobacco. The Microsoft litigation, they will tell you, claims a place in the pantheon of antitrust landmarks that includes Standard Oil, Alcoa, and AT&T. The tobacco litigation is the most massive in a string of mass torts including asbestos, Dalkon Shield, and breast implants; it is arguably the most important public health matter ever litigated. Microsoft and tobacco each fit so well and so interestingly in their …

Identifying Real Dichotomies Underlying The False Dichotomy: Twenty-First Century Mediation In An Eclectic Regime, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Some people (lawyers, scholars, judges, dispute resolvers, policymakers) are more concerned about fidelity to procedural protocols while others are more concerned with the substantive rules governing disputes and substantive outcomes. Those in the dispute resolution community preferring facilitation tend to be proceduralists. For them, the observance of proper procedure is a high goal, perhaps the dominant goal. They reason, often implicitly, that adherence to the rules of procedure is the essence of neutrality, fairness, and the proper role of a dispute resolving apparatus. At some level, usually subconscious, there is a post-modern philosophical aspect of this preference. Because humans cannot …

The Inevitability Of The Eclectic: Liberating Adr From Ideology, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The problem with viewing facilitation as the only legitimate form of mediation, of course, is that it borders on tautology: mediation is nonevaluative, therefore any evaluation in mediation must be impermissible. Although this view remains strongly held in many quarters, it appears to be in retreat, both within the mediation community and in the legal community at large. Courts and commentators have shown increasing favor toward some evaluative or advising component of mediation. More important, the eclectic style appears to be what takes place in the metaphorical trenches of mediation practice (although sound empirical data is necessarily hard to obtain …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

Fashionable Genetic Explanations In The Courtroom: Litigating Personal Injuries Based On Genetic Risk, Jennifer Wriggins

Faculty Publications

New developments in molecular genetics hold much promise for society. Gene therapy research is underway with the aim of helping to fight, and perhaps even eliminate some diseases. DNA data can be used as evidence to help free innocent people and put guilty ones in jail. Agricultural biotechnology can make crops and pesticides more productive. And cloning may offer exciting potential. There is little doubt that further· developments in the areas of genetics and biotechnology will change our lives in unanticipated ways.

Despite the potential benefits to society, there exist valid and serious I concerns about the potential for misuse …

Ex Parte Civil Commitment, Family Care-Givers, And Schizophrenia: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Analysis, Éva Szeli

Seattle University Law Review

First, this Article will discuss schizophrenia and its impact on these individuals and their families. Family variables in the course of the disorder will be highlighted. Then, this Article will review the legal power afforded such families by ex parte provisions in civil commitment statutes using the involuntary examination portion of the Florida mental health code as a model. Finally, this Article will assess this system of civil commitment available to care-giving families in therapeutic jurisprudential terms, with recommendations for maximizing the therapeutic consequences and minimizing the antitherapeutic consequences of ex parte procedures.

A Sea Change In The Appellate Process?, Gerald W. Vandewalle

Seattle University Law Review

Professor David Wexler's essay is certain to engender a sense of fear in appellate judges by its very suggestion that we should undertake such a sweeping reform of the appellate process. But the suggestions should-and will-beget the gnawing feeling that Professor Wexler's analysis of the articles by Professors Nathalie Des Rosiers and Amy Ronner, as well as the questions he poses, require us to explore these ideas further. For those of us who follow the "no advisory opinions" we might stop there. For thotshee acpapneolnl aotef courts who use a screening process to divert cases to an alternative dispute resolution …

Aggregation And Settlement Of Mass Torts, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

It is the way of symposia that, after conveners assign topics for discussion, participants interpret those topics to cover subjects that interest themselves. I understand my assignment to be discussion of "nonbankruptcy closure" and "settlement." The Judicial Conference Working Group on Mass Torts suggests possible approaches that might facilitate closure of mass tort claims by litigation or by settlement! This paper will explore two models prepared to illustrate the challenges that confront any approach to fair and efficient closure. The first model is the "All-Encompassing Model," while the second is a draft of settlement-class provisions for Federal Rule of Civil …