The Civil Procedural Law in the United States

course


The aim of the course:

This two-week course will examine some of the central features of the civil-justice system in the United States. The American system is sometimes described as the most „exceptional" — in other words, farthest outside the mainstream — legal system in the world. The course will focus on and explain those aspects of the American system that make it "exceptional" in this sense.

Lecturer:

Sam Jordan

SYLLABUS:

  1. The adversarial system.
  2. Cost and fee structures.
  3. Jury trial (reasons for; limits on; influence on the structure of the rest of the justice system).
  4. The pretrial system: pleading.
  5. The pretrial system: discovery.
  6. Class actions.
  7. The consequences of federalism (overlapping subject-matter jurisdiction of federal and state courts).
  8. The consequences of federalism (territorial jurisdiction over persons and things).
  9. Legal education.
  10. Review; examination

Selected bibliography:

Thomas Rowe Jr − Suzanna Sherry − Jay Tidmarsh: Civil Procedure. 3rd edition. Fountation Press, 2012.
Daniel A. Farber− Suzanne Sherry: Judgment Calls: Principle and Politics in Constitutional Law. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Martin Redish − Suzanna Sherry − James Pfander: Federal Courts: Cases, Comments, and Questions. 7th edition. West, 2011.
Stephen N. Subrin − Martha L. Minow − Mark S. Brodin − Thomas O. Main −Alexandra Lahav: Civil Procedure: Doctrine, Practice and Context. Aspen Law & Business, 2000; Second Edition, 2004; Third Edition, 2008; Fourth Edition, 2012.
Steve Subrin:Chapter and Forms on Massachusetts Civil Procedure. Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Annual Practice Skills Course Books, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., 1967-1972.
Stephen N. Subrin − Margaret Y. K. Woo: Litigating in America: Civil Procedure in Context. Aspen Publishing Co., 2006.
Stephen N. Subrin − Margaret Y. K. Woo: American Civil Litigation: Historical, Social and Cultural Context. Falu Chubanshe, 2002.