Recent Articles

Call for Proposals: Collective Redress in the Cross-Border Context

March 20, 2012 18:53

Stacie Strong (Missouri) is organizing the following conference in The Hague: Large-scale international legal injuries are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s globalized economy, whether they arise in the context of consumer, commercial, contract, tort or securities law, and countries are...

Author of FJC’s Study of 12(b)(6) Motions Posts Response to Academic Criticism

March 19, 2012 19:50

Joe S. Cecil, the primary author of the Federal Judicial Center’s empirical study of the impact of Iqbal, just posted (on SSRN) a response to concerns expressed about that study (including criticisms by Professors Lonny Hoffman, Ray Brescia, Jonah Gelbach,...

House Republicans Link Bipartisan “IPAB Repeal” Bill with Partisan “Tort Reform” Bill

March 16, 2012 21:07

You can never be too rich or too thin, and apparently you can never get enough “tort reform,” either. And if you keep repeating over and over that damages caps lower malpractice premiums, maybe it will someday be true despite...

Motion to Dismiss Age Discrimination Suit against Georgetown Law School in Faculty Hiring Denied

March 14, 2012 16:45

The March 13, 2012 opinion by Judge Huvelle of the District of District of Columbia in Spaeth v. Georgetown University is available here. As an aside, the court seems to be backing off Twiqbal: The notice pleading rules are “not...

Hall on Standing of Intervenor-Defendants in Public Law Litigation

March 14, 2012 15:17

Matthew Hall (University of Georgia) has posted Standing of Intervenor-Defendants in Public Law Litigation to SSRN. Unless the plaintiff has a personal stake in the outcome, Article III of the United States Constitution requires federal courts to dismiss a plaintiff’s...

Ninth Circuit Holds Parens Patriae Suit Not Removable Under CAFA

March 09, 2012 14:45

In State of Nevada v. Bank of America, No. 12-15005 (Mar. 2, 2012), the Ninth Circuit held that the district court did not have subject matter jurisdiction under either the Class Action Fairness Act or Section 1331 (under Grable &...

SCOTUS Order for Supplemental Briefing and Reargument in Kiobel

March 06, 2012 02:45

Today the Supreme Court ordered that Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum be reargued, and that the parties submit supplemental briefs on the following issue: “Whether and under what circumstances the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, allows courts to...

BP Oil Spill Settlement

March 04, 2012 02:20

A settlement has been reached in the Gulf Oil Spill Litigation, which was set to begin trial in Louisiana federal court on Monday. Story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune here. --A

Mulligan on Mims v. Arrow Financial Services and the Holmes Test

March 01, 2012 17:26

Lumen Mulligan (University of Kansas Law School) has posted You Can't Go Holmes Again to SSRN. Under the standard interpretation of 28 U.S.C. § 1331, the so-called Holmes Test, pleading a federal cause of action constitutes a sufficient condition for...

SCOTUS Decision on Preemption: Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products Corp.

February 29, 2012 19:17

Today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products, covered earlier here. Justice Thomas wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Alito and Kagan. Justice Kagan filed a separate concurring...