Law Commons^™

Auctioning Class Settlements, Jay Tidmarsh

Jay Tidmarsh

Although they promise better deterrence at a lower cost, class actions are infected with problems that can keep them from delivering on this promise. One of these problems is the issue of agency cost, in which the agents of the class (the class representative and class counsel) advance their own interests at the expense of the class. Controlling agency cost, which often manifests itself at the time of settlement, has been the impetus behind a number of class-action reform proposals.

This Essay develops an idea that, in conjunction with reforms in fee structure and opt-out rights, controls agency costs at …

Resurrecting Trial By Statistics, Jay Tidmarsh

Jay Tidmarsh

“Trial by statistics” was one means by which a court could resolve a large number of aggregated claims: a court could try a random sample of claim, and extrapolate the average result to the remainder. In Wal-Mart, Inc. v. Dukes, the Supreme Court seemingly ended the practice at the federal level, thus removing from judges a tool that made mass aggregation more feasible.

After examining the benefits and drawbacks of trial by statistics, this Article suggests an alternative that harnesses many of the positive features of the technique while avoiding its major difficulties. The technique is the “presumptive judgment”: …

Jurors And Social Media: Is A Fair Trial Still Possible?, Nancy Marder

Nancy S. Marder

No abstract provided.

The Puzzling Appeal Of Summary Judgment Denials: When Are Such Denials Reviewable?, Joan Steinman

Joan E. Steinman

No abstract provided.

Jurors And Juries, Nancy Marder

Nancy S. Marder

No abstract provided.

Say What?? Confusion In The Courts Over What Is The Proper Standard Of Review For Hearsay Rulings, Todd Bruno

Todd Bruno

Understanding and applying the hearsay rule and its exceptions is probably the most difficult and confusing task for lawyers and trial judges. Understanding and applying the proper standard of review when assessing potential errors of a trial court is probably the most difficult and confusing task for an appellate court. When combining the two concepts, appellate courts cannot figure out whether the analysis of hearsay and its exceptions involves resolution of fact questions, legal questions, or whether it is a matter of discretion of the trial court that should not be reversed unless that discretion was abused. The Sixth and …

Hydropower: It's A Small World After All, Gina Warren

Gina Warren

Global warming is here. As exhibited by the recent droughts, heat waves, severe storms and floods, climate change is no longer a question for the future, but a problem for the present. Of the many ways to help combat climate change, this article discusses the use of the most abundant renewable energy source on the plant – water. While large-scale hydropower (think Hoover Dam) is unlikely to see increased development due to its negative impact on the environment, fish, and wildlife, small-scale hydropower (think a highly technologically-advanced water mill) is environmentally-friendly and would produce clean, renewable energy to benefit local …

Lessons From Positive Psychology For Developing Advocacy Skills, Nancy Schultz

Nancy Schultz

Advocacy skills are crucial to law students and lawyers. One of the ways law students develop those skills is in the context of lawyering skills competitions. This article explores whether there is any psychological research that might offer more systematic guidance for advocacy coaches and instructors. Positive psychology does offer some principles that suggest useful approaches to coaching and teaching advocacy. Taken together with instinct and experience, these principles can help coaches and advocacy instructors be more effective in training young lawyers for litigation and dispute resolution practice.

14b Wright, Miller, Cooper, Steinman, Federal Practice And Procedure (West Group 4th Ed. 2009 & Supp. 2010-14, Supp. 2015 Forthcoming), Joan Steinman

Joan E. Steinman

No abstract provided.

Foreign Citizens In Transnational Class Actions, Jay Tidmarsh, Linda Simard

Jay Tidmarsh

This Article addresses an increasingly important question: When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of an American class action? The existing consensus holds that courts should exclude from class membership those foreign citizens whose country does not recognize an American class judgment. Our analysis begins by establishing that this consensus is flawed. Rather, to minimize the costs associated with relitigation in a foreign forum, we must distinguish between foreign claimants who are likely to commence a subsequent foreign proceeding from those who are unlikely to do so; distinguishing between those who come from recognizing and nonrecognizing countries …

The Rise Of The Common Law Of Federal Pleading: Iqbal, Twombly And The Application Of Judicial Experience, Henry S. Noyes

Henry S. Noyes

With its decisions in Twombly and Iqbal, the Supreme Court established a new federal pleading standard: a complaint must state a plausible claim for relief. Many commentators have written about the meaning of plausibility. None has focused on the Court’s statement that “[d]etermining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief...will be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense.” In this article, I make and support several claims about the meaning and application of judicial experience. First, in order to understand and define the plausibility standard, one must understand …

Foreign Citizens As Members Of Transnational Class Actions, Jay Tidmarsh

Jay Tidmarsh

This Article addresses an increasingly important question: When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of an American class action? The existing consensus holds that foreign citizens whose home forum will not recognize an American class judgment should be excluded from membership. Our analysis begins by establishing that this consensus is seriously flawed and misapprehends the nature of the problem. Using standard tools of economic analysis, we then make two arguments. First, the decision to include or exclude foreign class members should be based upon a comparison of costs and benefits: in particular, the costs generated by foreign …

Procedure, Substance, And Erie, Jay Tidmarsh

Jay Tidmarsh

This article examines the relationship between procedure and substance, and the way in which that relationship affects Erie questions. It first suggests that “procedure” should be understood in terms of process — in other words, in terms of the way that it changes the substance of the law and the value of legal claims. It then argues that the traditional view that the definitions of “procedure” and “substance change with the context — a pillar on which present Erie analysis is based — is wrong. Finally, it suggests a single process-based principle that reconciles all of the Supreme Court’s “procedural …

Indispensable Sovereigns: Pimentel, Abstention, And The Uses Of Rule 19, Katherine J. Florey

Katherine J. Florey

This Article attempts to fill some of the gap in academic treatment of Rule 19 by considering an important and timely issue in the Rule’s application. It makes the argument that, while Rule 19 was originally intended to facilitate the consolidation of litigation by authorizing mandatory joinder of absent parties, it has evolved in an important subset of cases to serve a nearly opposite purpose. That is, in many cases where a party may be affected by the litigation but cannot be joined because it is a sovereign possessing immunity from suit, courts have developed a near-categorical rule that the …

Erie's Suppressed Premise, Michael S. Green

Michael S. Green

The Erie doctrine is usually understood as a limitation on federal courts’ power. This Article concerns the unexplored role that the Erie doctrine has in limiting the power of state courts. According to Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, a federal court must follow state supreme court decisions when interpreting state law. But at the time that Erie was decided, some state supreme courts were still committed to Swift v. Tyson. They considered the content of their common law to be a factual matter, concerning which federal (and sister state) courts could make an independent judgment. Indeed, the Georgia Supreme Court still …

Horizontal Erie And The Presumption Of Forum Law, Michael S. Green

Michael S. Green

According to Erie Railroad v. Tompkins and its progeny, a federal court interpreting state law must decide as the state’s supreme court would. In this Article, I argue that a state court interpreting the law of a sister state is subject to the same obligation. It must decide as the sister state’s supreme court would. Horizontal Erie is such a plausible idea, one might think it is already established law. But the Supreme Court has in fact given state courts significant freedom to misinterpret sister state law. And state courts have taken advantage of this freedom, by routinely presuming that …

Strategic Idealizations Of Science To Oppose Enviornmental Regulations: A Case Study Of Five Tmols, David Caudill

David S Caudill

No abstract provided.

14c Charles Alan Wright, Et Al., (Supp. 2002-09), Joan Steinman

Joan E. Steinman

No abstract provided.

14b Charles Alan Wright, Et Al. (Supp. 2002-09), Joan Steinman

Joan E. Steinman

No abstract provided.

Critical Error, Bryan L. Adamson

Bryan L Adamson

Critical Error raises a novel double standard: while fact-specific trial court findings of actual malice are reviewed under the “independent judgment” standard (a wholesale re-weighting of the trial court record and decision) on appeal, intentional race discrimination findings are reviewed under the far more deferential Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52 clear error standard. Both legal concepts are arrived at through assessing state-of-mind determinations; both directly trigger constitutional proscriptions. Only actual malice, however, is classified as a constitutional fact, thus taking it out of the more deferential standard of review. The Supreme Court has failed to clarify this important procedural …

The Appropriations Power And Sovereign Immunity, Jay Tidmarsh, Paul F. Figley

Jay Tidmarsh

Historical discussions of sovereign immunity assume that the Constitution contains no explicit text regarding sovereign immunity. As a result, arguments about the existence — or non-existence — of sovereign immunity begin with the English and American common-law doctrines of sovereign immunity, and ask whether the founding period altered that doctrine. Exploring political, fiscal, and legal developments in England and the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this article shows that focusing on common-law developments is misguided. The common-law approach to sovereign immunity ended in the early 1700s. The Bankers’ Case (1690-1700), which is often regarded as the first …

Claims, Civil Actions, Congress & The Court: Limiting The Reasoning Of Cases Construing Poorly Drawn Statutes, Joan Steinman

Joan E. Steinman

No abstract provided.

Images Of Expertise: Converging Discourses On The Use And Abuse Of Science In Massachusetts V. Epa, David Caudill

David S Caudill

No abstract provided.

Wolfe's Bonfire Of The Vanities As A Cle Ethics Text, David Caudill

David S Caudill

No abstract provided.

Parades Of Horribles, Circles Of Hell: Ethical Dimensions Of The Publication Controversy, David Caudill

David S Caudill

This article examines the ethical dimensions of the controversy over no-citation rules and current publication practices. In the literature concerning that controversy, ethical concerns are often mentioned, but usually in tandem with other concerns. Professor Caudill isolates and categorizes the different types of ethical dilemmas, and demonstrates that at different levels of the controversy, the ethical concerns are different. He identifies three levels--the controversy over no-citation rules, the broader controversy over publication practices, and the even broader controversy over privatization of law (the so-called disappearing trial, ADR, and the end of law as we know it).

Ethical Dimensions Of Law/Science In The Courtroom, David Caudill

David S Caudill

No abstract provided.

Psuedonymous Suits In The Usa, Joan Steinman

Joan E. Steinman

No abstract provided.

Teacher's Manual To Adjudication And Its Alternatives: An Introduction To Procedure (With Judith Resnik), Nancy Marder

Nancy S. Marder

No abstract provided.

Depositions In The Age Of Summary Judgment, Richard Gonzalez

Richard J. Gonzalez

No abstract provided.

Once More Into The Breach: Constrasting U.S. And Australian Rights Of Publicity, David Caudill

David S Caudill

No abstract provided.