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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Managerial Judge Goes To Trial, Elizabeth Thornburg
The Managerial Judge Goes To Trial, Elizabeth Thornburg
Beth Thornburg
Scholars have examined the phenomenon of pre-trial judicial management, but have ignored the ways in which this problematic set of attitudes has invaded the trial phase of litigation. This article examines the use of managerial discretion at the trial stage and demonstrates that trial-phase managerial decisions suffer from all the problems of their pre-trial counterparts: 1) trial management involves judges so intimately in the parties’ information and strategies that it may compromise the judges’ impartiality; 2) it leads to a loss of transparency as more decisions are made off the record or in chambers; 3) management decisions are not guided …
The Curious Appellate Judge: Ethical Limits On Independent Research, Beth Thornburg
The Curious Appellate Judge: Ethical Limits On Independent Research, Beth Thornburg
Beth Thornburg
Appellate judges in the twenty-first century find themselves in a world in which litigation – both civil and criminal -- involves a vast array of complex and technical factual disputes. These lawsuits, in turn, may cause judges to seek a greater level of expertise in order to deal competently with the evidence that will be relevant to the disputes. At the same time, advances in communication technology have brought the world’s library to the courthouse, requiring no onerous trips across town or index searches but only the click of a mouse. When judges feel the need for additional information, the …