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The Continuing Evolution Of U.S. Judgments Recognition Law, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

The substantive law of judgments recognition in the United States has evolved from federal common law, found in a seminal Supreme Court opinion, to primary reliance on state law in both state and federal courts. While state law often is found in a local version of a uniform act, this has not brought about true uniformity, and significant discrepancies exist among the states. These discrepancies in judgments recognition law, combined with a common policy on the circulation of internal judgments under the United States Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, have created opportunities for forum shopping and litigation strategies that …

Caesar Would Have Arbitrated, Hugh D. Spitzer

Articles

With the recent increase in mandatory arbitration for small civil disputes and voluntary arbitration for much larger cases, it is easy to suppose that dispute resolution by someone other than a government- appointed judge is a novel, imaginative creation of the modern legal system.

But for the Romans who lived in Julius Caesar's time, indeed from several hundred years B.C. to at least 300 A.D., most civil matters never went to an official "judge." Instead, almost all such disputes were resolved by a lay arbitrator under a remarkably flexible and enduring system of civil procedure that worked as effectively as …