• Introduction: Civil procedure archaeology / Kevin M. Clermont
• Governing law : the story of Erie : how litigants, lawyers, judges, politics, and social change reshape the law / Edward A. Purcell, Jr.
• Subject-matter jurisdiction : the story of Owen Equipment v. Kroger : a change in the weather of federal jurisdiction / John B. Oakley
• Territorial jurisdiction : the story of Shaffer : allocating jurisdictional authority among the states / Wendy Collins Perdue
• Procedural due process : the story of Connecticut v. Doehr : balancing coasts and benefits in defining procedural rights / Robert G. Bone
• Venue : the story of Piper : fracturing the foundation of forum non conveniens / Kevin M. Clermont
• Parties : the story of Hansberry : the foundation for modern class actions / Jay Tidmarsh
• Pleadings : the story of Conley : precedent by accident / Emily Sherwin
• Discovery : the story of Hickman : preserving adversarial incentives while embracing broad discovery / Richard L. Marcus
• Motions : the story of Celotex : the role of summary judgment in the administration of civil justice / David L. Shapiro
• Jury : the story of Colgrove : social science on trials / Jeffrey J. Rachlinski
• Res judicata : the story of Parklane : the "litigation crisis" and the efficiency imperative / Lewis A. Grossman
• Recognition and enforcement : the story of HIlton : from gloves to globalization / Louise Ellen Teitz
• Adjudicatory : the story of Goldberg : why this case is our shorthand / Judith Resnik
• Adversarial : the story of Lassiter : the importance of counsel in an adversary system / Elizabeth G. Thornburg.

• Acknowledgments Prologue: A Recurrent Struggle Is Resumed 1. The Battle of Boerne 2. Superior Beings 3. Votaries 4. The Sovereign Publisher and the Last of the Menu Girls 5. Perhaps Inconsequential Problems 6. Gang Rape at State U. 7. Sovereign Remedy Notes Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780520235748 20160528

"Narrowing the Nation's Power" is the tale of how a cohesive majority of the Supreme Court has, in the last six years, cut back the power of Congress and enhanced the autonomy of the fifty states. The immunity from suit of the sovereign, Blackstone taught, is necessary to preserve the people's idea that the sovereign is 'a superior being'. Promoting the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity to constitutional status, the current Supreme Court has used it to shield the states from damages for age discrimination, disability discrimination, and the violation of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and fair labor standards. Not just the states themselves, but every state-sponsored entity - a state insurance scheme, a state university's research lab, the Idaho Potato Commission - has been insulated from paying damages in tort or contract. Sovereign immunity, as Noonan puts it, has metastasized. 'It only hurts when you think about it', Noonan's Yalewoman remarks. Crippled by the states' immunity, Congress has been further brought to heel by the Supreme Court's recent invention of two rules. The first rule: Congress must establish a documentary record that a national evil exists before Congress can legislate to protect life, liberty, or property under the Fourteenth Amendment. The second rule: The response of Congress to the evil must then be both 'congruent' and 'proportionate'. The Supreme Court determines whether these standards are met, thereby making itself the master monitor of national legislation. Even legislation under the Commerce Clause has been found wanting, illustrated here by the story of Christy Brzonkala's attempt to redress multiple rapes at a state university by invoking the Violence Against Women Act. The nation's power has been remarkably narrowed. Noonan is a passionate believer in the place of persons in the law. Rules, he claims, are a necessary framework, but they must not obscure law's task of giving justice to persons. His critique of Supreme Court doctrine is driven by this conviction.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780520235748 20160528

Class action law suits abound, but what is their purpose, and who benefits? This independent look at class action practices discusses the history of such cases, the driving forces behind them, and the justice or protection that their settlement provides. A comprehensive picture of class action suits in the 1990s comes to life in 10 case studies that seek to make readers question whether the plaintiff attorneys, the defendants, the consumers or the public were fairly served.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780833026040 20160527