Courses | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

The modern litigation paradigm is inter-jurisdictional, posing challenges for communication, co-operation, and co-ordination
between federal and state courts. This seminar explores the jurisdictional, choice-of-law, and remedies issues arising in complex multi-court litigation, the central role of the trial court judge as activist case manager, and the litigation strategies of the other major "players": plaintiffs' and defendants'litigation counsel, and in-house corporate counsel. Particular emphasis will be placed on the resurgent ascendancy of federal courts, particularly "MDL" transferee courts, in the wake of federalization of state law class actions under the Class Action Reform Act ("CAFA") and the trend toward "bellwether" trials.

Course Text: Excerpts from the Manual For Complex Litigation, Fourth (Federal Judicial Center 2004), Principles of the Law Of Aggregate Litigation (American Law Institute 2010), and selected case readings, to be supplied.