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- Title
The Failed Superiority Experiment.
- Authors
Bartholomew, Christine P.
- Abstract
Federal law requires a class action be "superior to alternative methods for fairly and efficiently adjudicating the controversy." This superiority requirement has gone unstudied, despite existing for half a century. This Article undertakes a comprehensive review of the superiority case law. It reveals a jurisprudence riddled with inconsistency as courts adopt diametrically opposed interpretations of the requirement. Originally crafted to encourage predictable, consistent class action decisions, superiority has mutated over the years into a dangerous wild card--subjectively used to stymie aggregate litigation. The solution is not adding a new requirement to the already onerous rules for class certification. Instead, judges should rely on existing yet currently underutilized case management tools and abandon the failed superiority experiment.
- Subjects
UNITED States; CLASS actions; FEDERAL laws; JUDGE-made law; INTERPRETATION &; construction of civil procedures; CLASS certification (Law); JURISPRUDENCE; LEGAL case management; COURTS; LAW
- Publication
Vanderbilt Law Review, 2016, Vol 69, Issue 5, p1295
- ISSN
0042-2533
- Publication type
Article