ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS
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Call for Papers AALS Section on Litigation "The Future of Summary Judgment"
AALS Annual Meeting January 6-10, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana
In connection with the January 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, the AALS Section on Litigation will be sponsoring a panel discussion on "The Future of Summary Judgment." The program will be co-sponsored by the AALS Section on Civil Procedure. Over the past twenty years, summary judgment has played an increasingly prominent role in federal and state civil litigation. Some hail the expanded availability of summary judgment as promoting efficiency, preserving judicial resources and relieving pressure on overcrowded dockets. Others criticize the current state of summary judgment practice as promoting needless pre-trial transaction costs, undermining the role of jury trials, and disadvantaging employment discrimination, civil rights and other plaintiffs. Recent proposed amendments to Rule 56 have further fueled the debate about the proper role for summary judgment. This program will explore the future of summary judgment. The program will include a speaker selected from this Call for Papers. Eligible papers may address any topic related to the future of summary judgment, such as the evolution of federal summary judgment law and practice since the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court's trilogy of summary judgment opinions, whether the trans-substantive model for summary judgment remains effective or normatively preferable, the recently proposed changes to Rule 56, and the development of state court summary judgment practice. These are only examples; papers may be submitted on any topic relevant to the program's theme. Both essay and article length papers are welcome. |