SYMPOSIUM ISSUE
UNIVERSITY OF AKRON LAW REVIEW
The Class Action After A Decade of Roberts Court Decisions
The Akron Law Review invites academic papers on the reasoning, dimensions, and possible impacts of one or more of the class action or other multi-party action cases decided by the “Roberts Court” (2005-present) We welcome papers of any length and request submission before September 14, 2014. Publication will occur in spring of 2015.
As the Supreme Court of the United States recognized:
The policy at the very core of the class action mechanism is to overcome the problem that small recoveries do not provide the incentive for any individual to bring a solo action prosecuting his or her rights. A class action solves this problem by aggregating the relatively paltry potential recoveries into something worth someone’s (usually an attorney’s) labor.
Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, 117 S.Ct. 2231, 2246 (1997) (quoting Mace v. Van Ru Credit Corp., 109 F.3d 338, 344 (7th Cir. 1997)). Earlier in 2014, the Court refused to intervene in a class action brought by consumers in “the case of the moldy washing machines” against three large corporations. Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Butler, 13-430, Whirlpool v. Glazer, 13-431, and BSM Home Appliances v. Cobb, 13-138. Although a victory for consumers, the decision is arguably an anomaly amidst recent pro-business cases restricting plaintiffs’ class certification. See e.g., Comcast v. Berend, 133 S. Ct. 1426 (2013); AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740 (2011); Wal-Mart v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011). Multi-party litigation may well be changing, and the Akron Law Review seeks your contribution to the conversation.
Your contribution to this conversation will be both timely and visible. The Washington and Lee Law Review Rankings ranked the Akron Law Review as a top 55 general, student-edited journal (in combined score based on impact factor and citation). Additionally, Ohio Supreme Court Justices cited the Akron Law Review more times in the past decade than any other journal. See Jared Klaus, Law Reviews: An Undervalued Resource, 26 Ohio Lawyer, May/June 2012, at 28.
You may submit manuscripts by email or regular mail. To submit by email, please forward a copy of your article in Word format to lawreview@uakron.edu. You may submit a hardcopy to: Justin M. Burns, Editor-in-Chief, Akron Law Review, The University of Akron School of Law, 150 University Avenue, Akron, Ohio 44325. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Justin Burns at jmb349@zips.uakron.edu.
Washington and Lee Law Faculty Scholarship Blog 