Course Description
Class actions and other complicated cases present unique procedural challenges that have become an increasingly important part of the landscape of civil litigation in the United States. This course studies some of the most important issues complex litigation presents for courts and parties. It focuses primarily on class actions but addresses other topics as well, including the contemporary civil justice reform movement and the rise of judicial case management. The course addresses the following questions, among others: (1) How can courts bring to final resolution mass harms in a fair and efficient manner? (2) How do courts solve problems created by the intersection of mass harms with overlapping jurisdictions that enjoy concurrent adjudicatory power? (3) How do lawyers finance complex litigation? (4) How do courts manage private litigation that has public regulatory effects?This course picks up where a basic civil procedure course leaves off. Students who plan to have a civil practice find this course both a useful review of important concepts from civil procedure and a helpful introduction to some of the more difficult procedural problems that commonly arise in civil litigation.
Updated: 04/05/2011