Civil Procedure: Cases and Problems

by Barbara Allen Babcock, Toni M. Massaro

Babcock (law, emerita, Stanford Law School) tracks the civil suit, from pleading through preclusions. The book begins with coverage of constitutional due process as a foundation for the study of jurisdiction. This third edition adds readings on how adversarial litigation compares to the administration of justice in other countries, and offers expanded treatment of emerging doctrines governing transnational litigation and the growth of a global digital economy. There is a greater emphasis in this edition on empirical studies of the practical consequences of procedural change. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Law, Nonfiction

1199 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 1997

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

no I did not read every page of this book but it definitely counts towards my total for the year. actually a fairly decent casebook, I liked this case, but 3 stars for the general suffering of school

[tristin]

once again...no way i'm not counting this.

[Juliana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a gripping tale. Pretty sure this gave me an anxiety disorder, possibly IBS. Use it to press dried flowers or keep drafts of that novel you were working on until you decided to “make something of yourself” from blowing away, and quit law school while you’re ahead. Life is whimsical and here for your pleasure and wide-eyed curiosity, except for this book, which is made of a unique type of black matter, the gravitational pull of which only attracts joy. If you don’t understand its contents, you are normal. Congratulations. Rejoin society - it’s not too late.

[Mia]

kicked my butt

[erin]

is it plausible that i read this whole thing

[Alexis Burns · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe the firehouse in Fahrenheit 451 had a point

[michael prado · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I would like to rate this book -5 stars, it would be extremely difficult to argue that this 1,251 tome does not include a thought provoking, if not comprehensive coverage of U.S. civil procedure somewhere within its many pages. (Hence, the two stars.) After all, its primary author, the late Barbara Allen Babcock, was a longtime law professor at SLS and a well-recognized pioneer in the field of civil procedure. Her coverage of the topic is certainly to be of value to many people in the legal field. Unfortunately, however, first year students should not be counted among those people, and it is an absolute travesty that this book is marketed toward first-year civil procedure courses.

Each chapter begins with a brief hypothetical situation, which the authors press the reader to think about for themselves. They must certainly assume the reader is already familiar and well-versed in the underlying principles of the very "squishy" field of civil procedure for they opt not to go in depth into what the consensus black-letter law or Federal Rules of Civil Procedures actually are (in fact, many times the book just directs the reader to go and read the relevant FRCP for themselves, as opposed to say, including the Federal Rule in the chapter on it), opting instead to merely copy-paste pages upon pages of experts from various hallmark cases, omitting any cogent summary of the key legal points (thanks, Quimbee, for your service), and then append a numbered list of "Notes" including irrelevant sub-topics, marginally related experts from stuffy academic papers, and other "things to think about" all while the first-year law student, who knows naught of civil procedure, is thinking about how his life got to this point.

I'm sure if you are a Professor or aspiring LL.D you will find something of value in this book to help you plan your "groundbreaking" law review article or thesis that all but three people will read. Otherwise, if you are among the cohort of first-year law students that have been capitally sentenced with this case book, then you can either choose to spend long candle-lit evenings poring over the mysteries of this text like some Kabbalistic scholar, or perhaps more fruitfully spend your time learning the black letter law from Glannons, Quimbee, or another third party source (in all seriousness, do check out the Civ. Pro lecture series from Richard Freer) and pray to God that your Professor is a good lecturer.

[lore · Rating 2 out of 5]

to be fair, i feel like it is really hard to enjoy civ pro and find the material interesting & easy to understand so my low rating may literally just be because the class was so impossible for me to understand. i just found the writing super dense, dry, & difficult to understand. while i know that civ pro is a difficult class & that obviously the concepts will be hard to comprehend, it would be nice for such a core, first-year class to be explained in a more simple, accessible manner, especially given how intimidating civ pro can be as a class.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

First case: Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp. 08/25/22

Final case: Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Sunnen 11/29/22

[Irina Kebreau · Rating 2 out of 5]

This must be the slowest and the most tedious account of civil procedure. When I need to fall asleep, this book is always sure to deliver. I've been struggling with it for months! It is a good thing I am not reading for a class

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Civil Procedure is never fun, but I thought this book was fairly informative.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed all the civil rights cases. The whole line of process cases was a bit dumbfounding, though.

[Jeff Brenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

You really should read the fine print when you buy a cruise ticket. It's totally binding.