Is litigation good for
anything other than stirring up animosities? Did we take a wrong turn in our
history down an adversarial path we could have avoided? What is the purpose of
allowing people to sue after all—to resolve disputes? Force information? Engage
in public debate through the courts? Or is any function other than dispute
resolution an illegitimate use of court power? Does the adversarial system
promote or impede justice? We will answer these questions through discussion of
two new books about litigation in the United States: Amalia Kessler’s Inventing
American Exceptionalism: The Origins of American Adversarial Legal Culture,
1800-1877 (Yale 2017) and Alexandra Lahav’s In Praise of Litigation (Oxford
2017). The panel will investigate both the long history of America’s love/hate
relationship with adversarial litigation and what hope there is for the future.
Papers from this
program will be published in The Review of Litigation.
Business
meeting at program conclusion.