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Public Law and Legal Theory

Columbia Law School

Public law litigation

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Courts As Institutional Reformers: Bankruptcy And Public Law Litigation, Kathleen G. Noonan, Jonathan C. Lipson, William H. Simon Jan 2017

Courts As Institutional Reformers: Bankruptcy And Public Law Litigation, Kathleen G. Noonan, Jonathan C. Lipson, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

This article compares two spheres in which courts induce and oversee the restructuring of organizations that fail systematically to comply with their legal obligations: bankruptcy reorganization and public law litigation (civil rights or regulatory suits seeking structural remedies). The analogies between bankruptcy and public law litigation (PLL) have grown stronger in recent years as structural decrees have evolved away from highly specific directives to “framework” decrees designed to induce engagement with stakeholders and make performance transparent. We use the comparison with bankruptcy, where the value and legitimacy of judicial intervention are better understood and more accepted, to address prominent criticisms …


The Promise Of Participation, Susan P. Sturm Jan 1993

The Promise Of Participation, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Owen Fiss's seminal work, The Civil Rights Injunction, inspired a generation of scholars and practitioners to flesh out the significance of his insights. With remarkable prescience, he captured a moment in intellectual and legal history and created a vocabulary that continues to shape the debate over the court's role in public law litigation. The Allure of Individualism continues the Fiss tradition of capturing a singular, emblematic issue and sketching with broad strokes the contours of emerging debate. His springboard is Martin v. Wilks, a case that aptly frames the current dilemmas and choices posed by structural injunction litigation. Martin …