Civil Procedure
Files
Description
This second edition of our Hornbook follows the same basic format and approach as the first. The primary revisions have been to update the volume in light of several very important legislative and judicial developments that have occurred since it was published in 1985. As was true then, our objective in this text has been to identify and discuss the significant aspects of civil procedure, both state and federal. We have not been deterred from exploring important questions merely because not all systems answer them alike. We also have tried to capture the complicated interrelationship between state and federal judicial systems in a coherent and systematic manner. Our approach is linear in time, beginning with the initial assertion of jurisdiction and challenged to it, progressing through framing the matters to be litigated, the parties, and trial preparation, and continuing on to judgments—their binding effect, their enforcement, and their review on appeal. The final Chapter is somewhat different in that it is not in chronological sequence. One of the fundamental challenges of our time is how the judicial system can cope with the increasing burden of complex, multiparty litigation that threatens to swamp our current procedural machinery, which really was devised for simpler disputes. That problem pervades from the beginning to the end of lawsuits. Thus, we have elected to gather all features of it in a single Chapter rather than distribute it throughout the text, which would create a risk of losing sight of it entirely, or, at the least, diminish its importance. In trying to attain the goal we describe, we have written a book far more comprehensive than any Civil Procedure course possible could be. But our purpose is broader than the mere creation of yet another student study aid. Students, as well as lawyers and even judges, often are called upon to learn about topics not covered in any law school course. Accordingly, we addressed ourselves to Civil Procedure in the broad sense, embracing topics and issues whether they typically are covered in law school or not, and whether federal or state in origin. We also have been attentive to history and have tried to articulate the policies that have governed procedural practices and have led to their modification over time. Certainly we do not claim that we have identified every procedural question that has or might arise. Nor have we provided answers to each of them. But we have tried to identify the important issue and to give readers sufficient information to allow them to understand what is at stake and why. So we think of our book as a beginning. Readers who wish to go further are provided with references to another more detailed source in which further inquiry can be pursued. Of the many instances of this throughout this volume, we call special mention to the numerous references to West Publishing Company’s multi-volume treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure. That work has been written by Charles A. Wright in collaboration with two of the authors of this book, Arthur R. Miller and Mary Kay Kane, and Edward H. Cooper, Kenneth W. Graham, Michael H. Graham, and Victor Gold.
Publication Date
1993
Edition
2
Recommended Citation
Friedenthal, Jack H.; Kane, Mary Kay; and Miller, Arthur R., "Civil Procedure" (1993). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 475.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/475
