Improving the Class Action Settlement Process: Little Things Mean a Lot
Alan B. Morrison · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 428 (2011) In 2010, the American Law Institute published its Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation, which include extensive discussion of and rules for class actions generally and for their settlement in particular. A few of these changes result from amendments to Rule... Read More
The Jurisdictional Nature of Adequate Representation in Class Litigation
Patrick Woolley · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 410 (2011) The American Law Institute sets an ambitious goal in Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation: “to identify techniques that promote the efficiency and efficacy of aggregate lawsuits as tools for enforcing valid laws.” The ALI identifies many techniques that promote that goal.... Read More
A Solution to the Choice of Law Problem of Differing State Laws in Class Actions: Average Law
Luke McCloud & David Rosenberg · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 374 (2011) In this Essay, we show why and how to apply the average of differing state laws to overcome the choice of law impediment currently blocking certification of multistate, federal diversity class actions. Our main contribution is in demonstrating that the... Read More
Reviving Judicial Gatekeeping of Aggregation: Scrutinizing the Merits on Class Certification
Richard Marcus · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 324 (2011) Judges have always been gatekeepers, but their gatekeeping tasks have changed a good deal over time. Gatekeeping is central to litigation aggregation, and it is thus not surprising to find that it is also central to the Principles of the Law of Aggregate... Read More
The Future of Mass Litigation: Global Class Actions and Third-Party Litigation Funding
Deborah R. Hensler · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 306 (2011) For many years after Rule 23 was adopted, the United States was not only the center of class action litigation, it was virtually the only jurisdiction that permitted class actions. Nor were large-scale aggregated proceedings common elsewhere. Since then, there has been... Read More
Aggregate Litigation Reconsidered
Roger H. Trangsrud · February 2011 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 293 (2011) Aggregate litigation has become an integral part of the U.S. civil justice system, used in cases as varied as civil rights, securities, and mass torts. Aggregate litigation, however, is often the cause of intense controversy among the private bar, the bench, and... Read More
Medical Marketing in the United States: A Prescription for Reform
Joshua Weiss · November 2010 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 260 (2010) Each year, physicians in the United States write more than three billion prescriptions, or about twelve prescriptions per American. In 2009 alone, the United States spent some $300 billion on prescription drugs. Similarly, the medical device market accounts for around $200 billion in... Read More
A Voice for the Voiceless: A Child’s Right to Legal Representation in Dependency Proceedings
Shireen Y. Husain · November 2010 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 232 (2010) This Note argues that Congress should amend the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (“CAPTA”) to require that all children in dependency proceedings receive competent legal representation and that this representative be required to articulate the child’s expressed wishes. The Note proposes... Read More
A New Discourse Theory of the Firm After Citizens United
Michael R. Siebecker · November 2010 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 161 (2010) Could a new “discourse theory” of the firm provide a better way than existing corporate law principles to understand the evolving nature of the firm and the role shareholders should play in corporate governance? Two recent developments provide a special urgency for... Read More
The Timing of Minimum Contacts
Todd David Peterson · November 2010 79 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 101 (2010) Over the course of a thirteen-year period from 1977 to 1990, the Supreme Court decided thirteen major cases on the issue of personal jurisdiction. This outpouring of opinions generated a burst of scholarly interest in the subject of personal jurisdiction and a... Read More