West has published a new book on federal standards of appellate review: H. Edwards and L. Elliot, Edwards and Elliott’s Federal Courts – Standards of Review: Appellate Court Review of District Court Decisions and Agency Actions (West 2007). Here’s the description from the book’s page at the West website: This sophisticated but easy to understand exposition of the standards of review offers an invaluable resource for law students, law clerks, and practitioners. Decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals invariably are shaped by the applicable standards of review. “Fill[ing] a huge gap in the literature,” Standards of Review masterfully explains the standards controlling appellate review of district court decisions and…
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“Opacity and Unaccountability”
Legal Writing Prof Blog links to and posts the abstract of a law review article in which the author contends that the “opacity and unaccountability” resulting from non-publication of district court opinions creates serious problems by preventing the true state of the law from being known, subjecting it to manipulation, and distorting its development.
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Law Prof Seeks Postponement in Federal Rules Amendments
Civil Procedure Prof Blog links to a letter/white paper from Professor Jeff Parker of George Mason University School of Law, in which he asks Congress to delay implementation of the changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The amendments are intended largely as a “re-styling” of the rules without substantive change, but Professor Parker’s not so sure. Here’s an excerpt from the abstract: I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but this year’s pending amendments also are extraordinary, as they will completely re-write each and every provision of the Civil Rules for the first time in their 70-year history. More fundamentally, they adopt a novel concept of rule…